Time in the Heart
by Wilona Riva
Summary: The little blue man peered over the edge of the dumpster. How could someone just throw away life? Good thing he liked boxes.
1. The Legend's Boy

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Why Johnny Can't Read - Now available on VHS and multimedia CD-ROM!_

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_Author's Note: This story isn't new. I had it, until an hour ago, up on my old pen name Garnet Sky. I just finished editing the last chapter and hope you enjoy it and the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I've started the sequel "Time's Reflection." I will only be uploading a few chapters a day, so I don't overload everyone's mailbox._

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**The Legend's Boy**

* * *

The baby's cries pierced the still silence. No one living heard.

The little blue man peered over the edge of the dumpster. How could someone just throw away life? Good thing he liked boxes.

Jorge sighed. "Guess I'd better bring the little tike to the King," he said wrapping the near frozen infant in his stocking cap.

Thus began the strange life our favorite ghost boy.

* * *

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth," a child's voice trilled from behind the closed doors. "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Tra la la la!"

The guard plugged up his ears and screwed up his face in disgust. Princess Ember could not sing; he wasn't going to be the one to tell her. No siree. He'd probably get sent to Walker's prison again. He'd rather face the Time Master than her father any day.

Jorge sighed and shifted the baby from one arm to the other. _How long would this go on?_

The doors opened and a girl with blue flames for hair skipped out happily. "Whatcha got?" she asked, peering at the object in the little blue man's arms.

"It's a baby I found abandoned in the human world," he explained gently to the little girl. Princess Ember couldn't sing, but her music packed a punch. The fact that the baby hadn't woken up and bawled along with Ember's howling was a miracle.

"What's abad, abed...that word you used?" she asked.

"Abandoned. It means nobody wanted him and threw him away," Jorge explained.

"How come? That's awful! Can I see him?" Ember asked, climbing up on his lap.

"Let me unwrap him a little," Jorge said, carefully pulling back the blanket so as not to wake the baby. He'd borrowed this from a package heading to Catsby, Florida containing baby items.

Ember oohed over the infant. He had soft, downy hair-black as a raven's wing. She knew something was odd about him.

"He's human!" she exclaimed, causing the baby to stir. He opened his eyes-crystal blue as the day sky. He began to cry.

* * *

King Pariah was taking the cotton balls out of his ears and muttered something about sending Ember to get proper singing lessons when the sound reached his ears. A sound he had not heard in many a year.

"He's come. Clockwork was right after all," he murmured.

"Box Ghost! Get your butt in here!" he bellowed on seeing the little blue man sitting on the petitioner's bench, his daughter on his lap peering at the baby the little blue man was holding.


	2. Cold Ice

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

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_'And I, of course, am innocent of all but malice.' - Fiona, Sign of the Unicorn, by Roger Zelazny_

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**Cold Ice**

* * *

Danny was two years old, when Klemper came. And he was two years and one day old when he began showing signs.

"Box Ghost, what is it now?" King Pariah asked, leaning his head on his arm and fighting the urge to roll his eyes.

"It's Danny, sire," Jorge said, shaking a bit. "He's cold all the time and no matter what I do to warm him up, nothing works."

King Pariah looked up in alarm. "When did this start?"

"Yesterday eve, sire. Klemper, the new boy, hit Danny with a snowball during a really wild snowball fight. The boy had adequate protection on him, but he began shivering not an hour later."

King Pariah did roll his eyes at that. "Did you consider the fact that the human child may have caught a cold?"

"Yes, sire, but that doesn't explain what Danny did afterwards," Jorge said, wringing his hands.

King Pariah sat up at this. "What did the boy do?"

Jorge took a deep breath. "His eyes flashed lunar white and then back to blue. The next thing I knew Klemper was gone."

The Ghost King sat back on his throne, shock running through him. The boy was developing his powers too soon! Clockwork had to be told.

"Jorge, bring the boy to me in the morning, in the meantime, feed him some of the Lunch Lady's fabulous chicken noodle soup. And make sure he gets some rest."

The Box Ghost bowed to his king. "Yes, milord." He departed, shouting 'Beware!' to little Princess Ember who just giggled.

* * *

The Lunch Lady looked up as Jorge floated into the room. "How did it go?"

Jorge sighed. "Something about the boy frightens the king. How could such an ordinary child do something like banishing a ghost?"

The Lunch Lady smiled and handed him a cookie. "Danny is doing much better than before. I fed him some chicken noodle soup as Clockwork advised. Tomorrow we have to bring him to the palace."

The little blue man choked on the cookie. "The Time Master has interest in the boy? We are so screwed."

"Jorge, language dear," his girlfriend cautioned.

"Sorry, Alice," he said, blushing just a bit.


	3. Son's Thoughts

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

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_But what was there to warn about, besides the fact that he glowed in the dark? - Tamora Pierce_

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**Son's Thoughts**

* * *

The Time Master examined the human boy carefully. "Well, he's lonely."

"That's all you're going to say?" King Pariah asked incredulously.

"For now," the Time Master said, before smiling at the human child, then vanishing.

"I hate that man," the ghost king fumed.

* * *

Five years passed and Jorge, the Box Ghost, soon found himself with a warehouse full of children, ghost and human, and some half-human/half-something else's children as well.

"Hey, Danny! Watch this!" a boy dressed like a pirate yelled.

"Uh-oh," a now seven-years old Danny muttered, hearing the sounds of screeching coming from the kitchen as the spectral skeleton parrot came flying out, followed by a ten-foot tall meat monster brandishing a barbeque fork and a frying pan.

"And don't you dare bring any of that filth into my kitchen again!" the meat monster howled, throwing a bag of half-thawed cauliflower after it. Seeing several of the kids looking at her, she smiled. "Dinner's almost ready."

"'Kay, Alice!" they chimed back. The Lunch Lady was an excellent cook and always had sweets for them when they came back from school.

Danny, a younger human/eel hybrid female named Apricot, and Youngblood grabbed seats near the back corner of the room.

Apricot had hair and eyes as golden as the fruit she was named for. She was human from the waist up with light gray skin; from the waist down, her long tail was grayish-green. She sighed. "You failed again, Youngblood," she said, spearing a pineapple ring, when the tray came round.

"Yeah, but what a show!" the pirate ghost chortled.

Danny laughed. "Alice is used to it by now, I guess. Jorge is more happier now than ever."

"Yeah, but he's still the lamest ghost in the Zone," Apricot added.

"I may be, but don't forget who took you whimpersnappers in," the Box Ghost said, putting his tray down at the table.

"Hi, Jorge," Danny said, his eyes brightening at the sight of his adoptive father.

"What's square?" Apricot asked him.

"King Pariah wants to see you tomorrow, Danny. I assume its about your upcoming apprenticeship. Have you decided which Master you want to study under yet?" the Box Ghost asked him.

"No," Danny admitted.

Apricot and Youngblood stared at him. At seven years of age, a child of the Zone always chose a Master to study under before taking a role in the chosen field years later. Danny should have decided on his Master long before now.

"Betcha he picks the Dream Master," Youngblood challenged Apricot.

"It'll probably be the Time Master," Apricot reciprocated.

"It could be me," Jorge said, after swallowing his bite of chicken pot pie.

Danny snorted with laughter. "As if," he said. "Jorge, I'd choose King Pariah before I chose you."

"So you have decided, so it shall be," a woman's eerie voice echoed in the silence that followed.

"Who let Desiree in here?" the Box Ghost asked the empty table.

No one stayed around when Desiree visited.

Wishes or no wishes.


	4. Ring of Tales

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

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_Behind them lay pain, and death, and fear. Ahead of them lay doubt, and danger, and fathomless mysteries. But they weren't alone. - The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman_

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_**Author's Note: Danny has the ability to banish ghosts to other regions of the ghost zone, but not ghost powers. Not yet, at any rate.**_

* * *

**Ring of Tales**

* * *

"Plum? Plum? Plum?" the floating plum orbiting his head was confused. His young master was going away. Had he done sometbing wrong?

"Danny, plum?" he asked again.

Danny plucked his little pet out of the air. It looked like a red plum covered with porcupine quills with tiny beady yellow eyes on purple stalks. It had a very limited vocabulary and had been dubbed 'Plum' since that was the word it kept repeating.

"Danny has to go away now," Danny said swallowing, while thinking about the events which had just transpired in the Ghost King's throne room.

* * *

_"You will live by your wits in the human world from now on, Daniel," King Pariah said. "Do what you must to survive."_

_"But, Sire!" the boy said._

_"Daniel, Desiree twisted your words into a wish that is true, but the fact is, I cannnot undo what has been done. You have been apprenticed to me; as such, you are now the heir to the Ghost Zone. When you return, Ember will be waiting. I give her to you as your wife, when you have come of age," King Pariah concluded._

_Danny shut his mouth. There was no use in arguing with King Pariah._

_"Oh, yes," he added. "One more thing." He pulled off a glowing gold ring with a veridian diamond rune flowing arounds its edge._

_"The Ring of Rage," Danny said in awe. _

_The Ring of Rage could only be used in conjuction with the Crown of Fire, the symbol of King Pariah Dark's rule over the Ghost Zone. _

_Danny felt the ring slide over the ringer finger of his own right hand. "But, Majesty..."_

_"You will return to the human world from whence you came. You will be allowed to return when you reach your fourteenth year. Then you will be ready," the Ghost King continued, mentally reviewing the images of the young Daniel becoming a halfa and the battles to follow that Clockwork had shown him._

* * *

Danny fingered the ring upon his finger. He had been entrusted with the Ring of Rage and bethrothed to Princess Ember of all people. At least the singing lessons were finally beginning to pay off!

He began to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

"Plum!" Plum squeaked as the boy grabbed him and hugged him tightly.

The room whirled around them; then both fell to the ground, while wincing at the bright light.

"Hey, kid, you alright?" a homeless vagabond asked him, poking him in the side.


	5. Slithering Child

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Go shake your ears. - Maria, Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'_

* * *

**Slithering Child**

* * *

Danny's shoulders slumped. "I was..." his eyes tears up at the memory of King Pariah's words.

_You must survive on your own._

The man just shook his head. "Running away from home, no doubt. Here, you can stay with me, if you'd like." He indicated the large cardboard box he called home.

Plum's eyes lit up. "Plum! Plum!"

Danny had to laugh. "Yeah, Plum, definitely wouldn't want Jorge to see this."

The old man raised an eyebrow. He had seen a lot of strange things in his long life, but nothing like this. "I dunno what you are," he told Plum, "but behave yourself. Same goes for you, boy."

He narrowed brown eyes at Danny. "Well, out with it."

Danny looked at him blankly. "What?"

The old man rolled his eyes. "The story, boy, the story. Why are you running away from home?"

"I'm not running away; I was turned out. I was raised by a little blue man in coveralls with a lot of boxes. He found me in a dumpster as a baby. Something I said today was twisted into a wish that got granted and now I've got to live by myself in the human world until I turn fourteen and can return to the Ghost Zone," he explained.

The old man was silent for a while, then he began to laugh. "That's the tallest pack of whoppers I've heard in years," he chortled. "So, you're an orphan and have no home. Well, it's to bed now. Old Simon will show you the ropes on the morrow. Night, boy. Night, weird thing."

Simon rolled over and began to snore. Danny secured another cordboard box and wrapped himself up in newspapers to keep warm. Plum snuggled in close to him; his quills soft as down feathers. "Plum, Danny, plum," he said, sleepily.

* * *

Danny had now been living with Old Simon in various shelters and back alleys in the city for several weeks. Simon had developed a bad cough and Danny was resorted to routing in the trash bin behind the Italian restaurant where they lived in the alleyway. Tonight he'd struck gold, a half-eaten eggplant parmigiana and a few crusts of moldy garlic bread.

"Plum?" Plum swivelled an eyestalk behind them as Danny kept to the shadows. A girl stood wide-eyed at the entranceway to the alley. "Apricot, plum?" he asked.

"What the heck do you think you are doing? You could die if you ate that!" she yelled, her raven hair flowing around her shoulders, as she saw Danny holding his supper.

"If I died, then I could go home!" he shouted back.

Plum bristled in fury and his quills began to glow amber. "Plum! Danny! Plum!"

"Calm down, Plum," the boy, Danny, said coolly. "I'm sure she means no harm."

"Samantha, darling, where are you?" a woman's soprano-alto tone called out. "We need to go inside, dear, our table is ready."

The raven-haired girl's amethyst eyes darkened to indigo. "Always ruining the moment," she muttered to herself.

"I've got to go. If you wait here, I'll bring you something back that's better than that trash," she promised.

Danny eyed the rubbish from the dustbin and then nodded. He threw it away.

"Alright," he said.

She smiled at him.

"Samantha!" the woman's voice called out again.

She scowled, flashed a smile at Danny and then took off running back the way she came.

* * *

The Ghost King nodded his head sagely. "The girl is correct. Young Daniel needs to think of his health first. But why show me this?"

Clockwork sighed. "The girl will be a source of strength and encouragement to the halfa in days to come. Even now, young Daniel is unaware of the loss of his only friend in life."

"What do you mean?" King Pariah asked.

"Old Simon, would you come in here, please?" Clockwork asked the shadows.

A ghost with blue eyes, dark green skin, and shaggy pale ale colored hair and beard emerged. "Where am I? And who the heck are you? Where's Danny?"

Clockwork leaned on his staff and changed forms from old man to young child. "I am Clockwork, the Master of Time, and this is Pariah Dark, King of Ghosts. You are in the Ghost Zone, having become the newest inhabitant of these demenses. Danny is still in the world of the living, unware of your death."

"The boy!" Old Simon's eyes widened. "I have get back to the boy! He'll die out there alone on the streets."

"He'll be fine," Clockwork reassured him. "Even now, he is about to meet someone special to him."


	6. The Dwindling Touch

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_I don't need parents. All I need is a recording that says, 'Go play outside!' - Calvin and Hobbes_

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**The Dwindling Touch**

* * *

The girl never came back.

Danny heaved a deep sigh and stood up. "I've should've known she'd never come back. Come on, Plum."

"Plum," Plum said sadly, following Danny.

Rigor mortis had set in the lifeless remains of Old Simon as had the worms and rats. Danny was sick and had to puke. He knew that some humans became ghosts after death, but he had never seen a dead body before.

"So this is death," he said, before the tears came.

"Danny, plum," Plum said, trying to comfort his friend.

* * *

Maddie Fenton was having second thoughts about leaving her husband at home with their nine-years-old daughter Jazz, especially after the sugar cookie fiasco. She shuddered to even think about it.

It had been several weeks since a ghostly energy flux had been detected, and it was driving Maddie bonkers trying to locate the source of it. Finally, after another fine tuning of the Fenton Portal Detector, she'd gotten another reading.

Checking the instrument's ecto-GPS tracking, she pulled out her stun-staff. The inner city's alleys were full of two-legged and four-legged scum and she didn't want to come across any of them tonight.

She paused as a thought struck her brain.

"I do hope Jack didn't..."

* * *

Back at FentonWorks, we see Jack Fenton...

"Oops!" he said, staring at the gingerbread man eating ectoplasmic spice drops.

* * *

Maddie sighed.

"Knowing him, he did," she said, rolling her eyes upwards.

A sickening sweet odor slammed into her. Death clogged her nostrils.

"Ugh!" she said in disgust, pulling out a cloth to cover her nose and mouth.

Then she saw the boy.

He was crying over a corpse with a...

"What the heck?" she exclaimed.

"Plum, Danny, plum!" it yelled, just then.

The boy whirled around.

Violet eyes met crystal blue.


	7. The Only Guardian

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_In the real world, as in dreams, nothing is quite what it seems. - The Book of Sorrows_

* * *

**The Only Guardian**

* * *

Maddie stared at the young boy, the corpse, and the glowing whatchamacallit floating behind him. She looked at the filth, the rats, and the dumpster. Whoever this child was, he clearly didn't belong here.

She sighed.

Danny looked up in fear and saw the human woman. He relaxed when he saw the glowing weapon in her hand. She must be one of those ghosts who could pass for human. He moaned. What if she was Spectra in disguise? He gazed fearfully in her direction.

"Plum?" Plum asked, turning sideways to glance at the newcomer.

Maddie cautiously approached the boy so as not to scare him. Bending down to his eye level, she smiled at him.

"Don't be afraid," she said, noting the fear in his eyes. "My name is Maddie Fenton. What is yours?"

The boy met her gaze again. "Danny," he whispered.

She noticed the ring on his finger. It radiated a strong ghostly aura of power that had to be the source of the anomaly. She had to get it from him so she could run tests to be sure though.

"I didn't know boys wore jewelry," she casually stated.

"It is a trust," Danny said, not wanting to reveal exactly what the Ring of Rage was.

"It looks otherworldly," Maddie said, staring hard at it.

Danny was uncomfortable with the woman's observations. "It is a symbol of my Master," he explained.

She stared back at the old man and then at Danny. "You're too young," she blurted out, shocked that this child had experiences in _that_ department.

Danny had to laugh at that one. "No, I'm not. Every child at the age of seven in the Ghost Zone apprentices himself to a Master."

Maddie was reeling in shock at this news. "You k-k-know about the Ghost Zone?" she stuttered.

"Yeah, lady. Where'd you think I came from? The streets?" he glared at her now.

"The anomaly! You're a ghost!" she yelled, pulling out the Fenton Special-a mini-Ghost Bazooka.

Danny's eyes trained at the weapon trained on him. His eyes began to glow white.

"You're the ghost!" he yelled back, feeling the power rising up around him.

Maddie's arm faltered. "What?" she yelled at him.

Danny cast the spell.

Light blew up the alley around them.


	8. Spirit in Thought

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. - Gandalf, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring  
_

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**Spirit in Thought**

* * *

"Plum!" Plum fussed at Danny, when the light cleared.

"How was I to know she wasn't a ghost masquerading as a human?" Danny argued.

"Plum!" Plum screamed at him.

"Sorry, Plum," Danny apologized, noting that the woman was coming around.

Maddie groaned as the pain throbbed in her head. _What just happened?_

"Danny?" she asked groggily, adjusting her eyes to the darkness of the alley. The stench drove all thoughts of ghosts from her mind.

"I'm here," the boy whispered. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't know you were a real human. Very few exist in the Zone."

Maddie heaved a deep sigh and attempted to sit up. The light still dazzled her eyes.

"What did you just try to do?" she asked the boy.

"Get you to leave me alone," he muttered, looking at his shoes.

"It didn't work," she said.

"Only works on ghosts. I thought you were a ghost," he glumly remarked.

"Well, I'm a ghost hunter, not a ghost," she laughed. "That would explain it."

Danny backed up, fear once more lit up his blue eyes.

She sighed. "Danny, I won't bite you," she said, reaching for him.

"No! Leave me alone!" he yelled at her.

"Do you have a family?" she asked him.

"No," he said. "Just Jorge and Alice. Sometimes Ember visits the warehouse," the boy rattled on.

He never knew when she wrapped him warm blankets. "Let's go home," she said gently him to the front of tthe alley.

"Home?" he asked her, confused at the sudden change in her.

"Our home," she clarified, guiding him to the FFGAV. He was her son from this day forward, and damned if the ghosts who abandoned him here tried and take him back.

He was her son. Maybe not by blood, but still she wasn't leaving him out here as prey for the human vultures.

Danny wondered how she was going to contact Jorge or Alice. Maybe she had a lot of meat or a ton of boxes lying around somewhere. That always brought them to the human world.

* * *

Jorge watched as Danny fought the woman's intrusion and subsequent checking to make sure he was wearing his seat belt. "Hang in there, Danny, just a little while longer," he whispered to the image in Clockwork's portal.

"He's learning how to use the powers of the Ring of Rage," King Pariah said, cheering his heir onwards.

"Plum," Plum asked, feeling alone in the darkened alley.

"Danny, plum," Plum added, before latching onto Danny's unique energy signature.

"Plum!" it flew off after them.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'll explain Pariah Dark's comment in a future chapter.**


	9. Wet Planet

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_There is no such thing as good guys and bad guys, just them and us. - Belgarath, David and Leigh Eddings_

* * *

_Author's Note: Street signs originally were named Procrastination Ave and Patchwork Quilt Drive; I decided to change it to make it more realistic._

* * *

**Wet Planet**

* * *

The rain began to fall by the time Maddie came to the red light at the intersection of Canaan Avenue and Paddington Drive.

Danny began to whimper.

Maddie turned in her seat and gave a quick hug, just as the light turned green.

"Danny?" she asked, as the boy gave a sharp cry when the thunder boomed.

"He's gonna get me!" he screamed.

Maddie's eyes widened in alarm. "Who is going to get you?" she asked the boy.

"V-v-v-Vortex," he stuttered.

"And who is this Vortex?" she asked him.

"Weather Master," he whispered, uttering a short cry as the rain came down harder.

Maddie sighed. There was a lot she and Jack could learn from this boy. Who knew that ghosts had a society that mirrored the human world?

"Danny?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered in a low voice.

"I want you to sit up straight. This Vortex is not going to come after you. It's just a late summer shower. This is how humans get their water-from the sky-when the rain falls. It's called the water cycle," she explained gently.

This peaked his curiosity. "Ghosts don't cause rain?" he asked.

"No, ghosts don't cause rain here in the human world. This is a natural occurence," she replied, taking a sharp right on Mirrorheart Street.

"Did you go to school with other children in the Ghost Zone?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, with Youngblood and Apricot mostly. Sometimes Plum snuck in during Ghost Writer's geography lesson. We were learning about the Far Frozen when Desiree twisted my words during dinner," he replied bitterly.

His eyes widened just then. "By the Observants! I forgot Plum in the alley!"

"Plum?" a sleepy voice asked him, upon hearing its name mentioned.

Maddie saw a purple eye stalk with a beady yellow eye peering up from underneath a blanket. She screamed and almost ran into a row of mailboxes.

Danny climbed up and looked over the top of the seat and saw what scared the human woman.

"Oh, there you are, Plum!"

"Plum!" his pet chittered at him angrily.

"Well, excuse me for saying I'm sorry," Danny retorted.

"Plum, Danny, plum," Plum answered back.

If Maddie didn't know any better, she would have guessed that the little creature had just sassed Danny back. She smiled.

"Plum, come here, please," she said in her best no-nonsense adult tone.

Plum looked up at Danny, who nodded, and then floated just out of reach of Maddie's arms.

"Plum?" it asked her, turning sideways to look at her.

"You gave me quite a fright just now," Maddie said sternly. "I don't know how you came to be in the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, but please in the future, do try to give some warning before you give someone a heart attack."

"Plum," the little creature agreed.

Maddie and Danny buckled up once more, and after checking to make sure no cars were coming, Maddie backed the FFGAV up and continued on. She decided to play some music instead.


	10. Beginning in the Names

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Question Authority. They usually know where the bathroom is. -MTV's Daria_

* * *

**Beginning in the Names**

* * *

"Maddie?" Danny asked, his eyes staring at the cassette tape in her hands.

"Yes, Danny?" she asked, pausing in the act of putting the latest operetta in the tape player.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing at the plastic rectangle she was holding.

"It's a cassette tape, Danny," she said. "I thought we'd listen to a bit of opera. Jazz and I listen to it all the time when we go shopping."

"Who's Jazz," he asked a bit perplexed.

"She's my daughter," Maddie answered. "That brings me to another point, young man."

"Huh?" Danny looked at her in bewilderment.

"Children in the human world do not call their elders by their first names," she told him. "My given name is Madeline, but most people call me 'Maddie'. It is a shortened version of my name just like Danny is short for Daniel, correct?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. "I hate being called by my full name."

"I understand," Maddie told him, patting him gently on the arm. "You should call me Mrs. Fenton, as I am a married woman."

"Okay," he said. "That's like being betrothed, right?"

"Sort of," she replied, wondering where he had learned that term. "It's the ultimate goal in a boy/girl relationship," she said.

She heard him mutter something ending with 'Ember' under his breath.

She popped the cassette tape in the player and adjusted the volume.

Danny promptly shut it off.

She glanced at him as she turned down another winding side street.

"What's wrong with the music?" she asked him

"Reminds me of Ember's singing," he said, a wry expression on his face.

"Who is Ember?" she asked.

"My betrothed," he said quietly.

"What?" she shouted.

"Plum! Plum! Plum!" the little creature yelled, jerking awake just as he was falling into a deep slumber.

"Shush, Plum," Danny said, stroking his quills. "It's nothing. Go back to sleep."

"Plum, Apricot," the little creature muttered before closing its eyes.

Danny turned and stared out the window.

What were Apricot and Youngblood doing right now?


	11. Thorns of Woman

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance._

* * *

**Thorns of Woman**

* * *

Pariah Dark, King of all Ghosts, was cornered in his own throne room by his daughter, of all people.

"Father, what did you to with Danny?" she asked him.

"He is currently serving out his apprenticeship," her father smoothly answered, not letting his eyes off the pink guitar she carried for one second.

Ember took the phrase "hard rock" to a whole new level these days.

"Where is Danny?" she demanded angrily. "I know he's not in the palace or in the warehouse. He didn't even come to school today. Apricot and Youngblood are really worried," she added.

He sighed. Women could be a thorn in his side at sometimes, especially his daughter.

"He's in the human world," he revealed at last.

Ember dropped her guitar in shock. "Are you out of your mind?" she yelled. "How's he going to feed and clothe himself? What if he gets sick? What if he tries to banish someone? What if he runs into a ghost hunter?"

"Peace!" the Ghost King roared. "Enough with the questions! Danny is fine. A mortal 'hobo' as some people call homeless people found the boy within moments of his arrival. I gave him the Ring of Rage to help control his power. With the Ring, he can detect when the power will surge. He has already discovered this facet of the Ring's powers. He's already tried to banish a ghost hunter who has taken him into her home. Clockwork has reassured me that she will give him a good home and see that he receives a well-rounded education."

"But what if the ghost hunter teaches him to fight against us, Daddy?" she asked worriedly.

King Pariah sighed. "That is something we will have to deal with when the boy returns. There is a condition I need to clarify before we go any further."

"I can't believe you, Father!" she yelled, when he finished imparting the rest of the news to her.

* * *

"Pretty shocking," Apricot said, sipping on a sour ghostberry smoothie. "You have to actually marry Danny in order to be Queen of Ghosts?"

"Yeah," Ember muttered, stirring her cup of cocoa flame. "Father said it was 'my duty' or something like that."

"What is so funny?" Apricot demanded of Youngblood who was rolling on the floor.

"You said "duty"," he shrieked as fresh peals of laughter broke forth.

Ember exchanged a look with Apricot.

"Boys!" they said in unison.

"So, how are we getting to the human world to find Danny?" Apricot asked her.

"Leave that to me," she said, taking a sip of her iced drink.


	12. Misty Shadow

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement._

* * *

**Misty Shadow**

* * *

"So can you help us or not?" Ember asked the shadows.

"Kial ..u Mi helpi la filino de Pario Malluma?" a guttural voice answered her.

"Because I need your gift," she told him.

"Ne sufiĉ informoj, Princinom" the gruff voice replied.

Ember proceeded to explain about Danny, who he was, why he was important to her, and what she needed from him.

"So will you help us get to the human world?" she entreated him.

A hairy arm came out of the shadows and pointed straight at her chest.

"Rigard. Atendi," the voice told her.

"Thank you, Wulf," she said, hugging the hairy werewolf.

"Freneza infano," the werewolf ghost told her affectionately.

* * *

"So," Youngblood said, pouncing on her as she came in the door. "What did Wulf have to say? Will he help us?"

"The kid's got a point, Ember," Apricot said, flicking her tail at him.

"Hey, you're younger than me!" Youngblood pouted.

"Girls mature faster," she retorted.

"He didn't give me a definite answer. He knew I was the Ghost King's daughter and wanted to know why he should help us."

"Reasonable," Youngblood's parrot said.

"He said to watch and wait," she said, leaving out the 'crazy child' bit.

"I agree," Apricot said, "but who else do we know that can give us the answers we need?"

The three looked at one another in silence.

"CLOCKWORK!" they exclaimed at the same time.

* * *

Author's Note:

Yes, I used an online english/esperanto translator. No, I'm not translating what Wulf said.


	13. Dreaming Something

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_It could be love, could be an aneurism - Brendan Fraser, Mrs. Winterbourne_

* * *

**Dreaming Something**

* * *

Danny was scared of humans. He was scared of Maddie.

He hadn't been scared of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle; he assumed the Technological Master had given it to them because he was bored with it.

The human world was plum crazy.

"Plum?" his pet asked sleepily from his lap.

"It's nothing, Plum," he told the little creature.

The woman was taking him somewhere far from his home. She knew a lot of things that she could teach him.

Maybe she was a Master?

_No_, he decided. _She was just another human._

As much as he wanted to go home, his Master had been quite serious when he said he was to complete his apprenticeship on Earth until his fourteenth birthday. No apprentice disobeyed his Master, especially the King of Ghosts.

"Danny, we're here," Maddie said, pulling up into the driveway of a three-story building with a really bright gaudy sign afixed to it.

"_This_ is where you live?" he asked, blinking his eyes.

"You'll get used to it," Maddie told him, "now, I have to warn you about Jack. He can be very overwhelming at first, but he's really a softy at heart. He always likes to show off new inventions and explain how they work. And don't get him started on ghosts-he can blabber on for hours."

"Got it," he said, unbuckling his safety belt and opening the door.

"Two more things, Danny," Maddie added. "Don't eat anything that's been near the ectoplasmic samples in the fridge and don't touch the fudge. Jack will kill you."

Danny froze and stared up at her. "I'll banish him first!"

Maddie didn't doubt he would try. "It doesn't work on humans; remember you tried it on me already."

_True._

Maddie looked Danny and Plum over and decided they were going to the mall first thing in the morning.

She turned the knob and ushered in the house.

Machines whirled to life.

**"Unidentified Life-form detected."**

Danny panicked as an ecto-gun came out of the wall and prepared to blast him.

"Maddie!" he screamed.

He should have known never to trust a ghost hunter!


	14. Dangerous Planet

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up here - Jack Nicholson 'As Good As It Gets'_

* * *

**Dangerous Planet**

* * *

"I've known you were coming since before time began," the Time Master called out to them. "Quit lurking in my doorway."

"Sorry, Time Master, we didn't want to bother you," Apricot called back.

"Just use your viewing screen to get to the human world and find Danny," Youngblood added under his breath.

"Not on my watch," Clockwork said, emerging from the shadows. If it's one thing the Ghost Zone had in abundance, it was plenty of shadows to hide in.

The Time Master looked over this group of unlikely friends. "I believe Wulf told you to 'watch and wait', Princess Ember," he said sternly.

"Yeah, but we have no time for that. Danny needs us," she argued. Apricot, the parrot, and Youngblood nodded in agreement.

"Young Daniel is where he needs to be at this moment. See for yourselves," he opened a viewing portal for them, while shifting from old man to young child.

* * *

_"Plum!" Danny's pet screamed in horror as the guns trained on them prepared to open fire._

_"Jazz," a human female yelled, "shut off the security system!"_

_"Kay, Mom!" a girl yelled back. She looked to be about a year or two older than Danny._

_Moments dragged by, then the gun retracted into the wall._

_Danny and Plum were visibly shaken._

_Maddie went to reassure him that everything was alright, but he shrank away from her._

_"Get away from me, ghost hunter! You tricked me!" he yelled at her, feeling the power once more begin to surge._

_Maddie saw his eyes begin to glow, when they both heard a voice behind them._

_"Mommy, who's that?" the girl appeared. She was willowy, with carrot-red hair, blue-grey eyes, and wore a yellow sundress with bell-sleeves. She was barefoot._

_"This is your new brother," Maddie said carefully, trying to keep Danny's glowing eyes from her view._

_"Jazz, I'd like you to meet Danny."_

_Danny fought the power surge and felt himself return to normal, but his heart still raced from the previous excitement._

_He peered around Maddie's waist at the girl._

_"Aww, he's a bit shy," Jazz said. "He's so cute!"_

_Danny glared at her. "I'm not a baby, human."_

* * *

Ember smacked one fist into the open palm of her other hand. "Hands off, girl, he's mine!"

Apricot had to laugh. "Someone's being over-possessive," she said in a singsong tone.

Youngblood quietly continued watching the scene unfold.

* * *

_Maddie went down to the basement lab, while the kids got acquainted with one another._

_Seeing the scorch marks on the wall and Jack, desperately, trying to hide the Fenton Bazooka behind his back, she arched an eyebrow._

_"What happened in here?" she asked._

_"Nothing," her husband lied, flicking the remains of the ghost gingerbread man behind his back._

_"Oh really?" Maddie asked, raising one eyebrow. "Then, why are you trying to hide the Fenton Bazooka behind your back?"_

_"Ghost Gingerbread Man?" he said, more asking than saying._

_"Never mind," she told him. "I tracked that anomaly we noted a few weeks ago and found a young boy in an alley behind Papa Penne's Italian Diner in the inner city."_

_"So?" her husband asked. "What's so special about this boy?"_

_"He was raised by ghosts in the dimension called the Ghost Zone. We've been trying to build a portal to there since college," she reminded him._

_"I hope, V-man's ecto-acne cleared up," Jack said, flashbacking to when their proto-portal blew up in his best friend's face during a test-run._

_"I'm sure he's fine, Jack. Danny can tell us a lot about ghost society, their powers, and such," Maddie said, her voice rising in excitement._

_"You know what this means, Mads?" Jack cried out._

_"That we can finally catch a ghost and experiment on him?" she asked._

_"No," Jack said, face faulting._

_"Then what?" she asked him._

_"Then we can prove to the world we're not crackpots!" Jack crowed._

_Maddie groaned and wondered for the nth time why she'd married him._

_"Just come upstairs and meet Danny, please," she entreated._

_"Sure, let me put this baby charging," her husband said._

* * *

"They're going to raise him to be a ghost hunter!" Youngblood yelled. "We have to get him out of there."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Clockwork said, changing to a young adult male. "The Fentons play a crucial future role in young Daniel's life."

"How so?" Apricot asked.

"One of their inventions will activate and young Daniel will forever be changed," Clockwork hinted.

"Can we go to the human world now?" Ember asked, hopefully.

"No," was the singular reply.

"Maybe Jorge knows a way," Apricot suggested.

"Then what are we waiting around here for," Youngblood said. "Let's go!"

"Bye, Clockwork!" they called back, when they were past the doorway to the Time Master's lair.

The young man became a child once more and smirked to himself. The story was getting even more interesting with each chapter. He loved his job.


	15. Swollen Flowers

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_"These are American components. You can't work them." - American astronaut. "American Components, Russian Components, They're all made in Taiwan." - Russian Astronaut, Armageddon_

* * *

**Swollen Flowers**

* * *

"He's finally asleep," Maddie mumured to Jack from the doorway.

"He's a Fenton now. Of course, he's a deep sleeper," Jack reassured her.

"I wish we could find out where he came from and who his parents were," Maddie said. "Especially, how he came to be raised by ghosts."

"Be gentle, Maddie. He's been brought up with the knowledge that ghosts are like that old kids' cartoon, Casper. He needs to be taught the truth-that they are evil proto-plasmic scum that need to be eradicated," Jack said, setting his jaw firmly.

Maddie sighed. "But first, we need to get him some clothes," she said, eyeing the nightclothes he was borrowing from Jack. It looked like he was wearing a tent, for Pete's sake.

Danny rolled over onto his stomach and nearly squished Plum in the process. It chittered at him and fell asleep, snuggling up to the boy's warmth.

Maddie closed the door, leaving it open a crack so she could hear him if he got up in the night.

In his dream:

_"You're in a dream, Daniel, don't be afraid," the Pan-like ghost with the starry cloak told him gently._

_Dream Danny was dressed in the usual outfit he wore in the Zone: black tight-fitting pants that moved fluidly with every motion, a black and silver over tunic, and silver boots to finish it off. His outfit was not unlike a futuristic one he would wear someday._

_"Dream Master?" he asked, staring at the figure floating in front of him._

_"Yes, my Prince," Nocturne said, bowing to the boy. "You called for me."_

_Danny rushed and hugged him. "Dream Master, take me home, please."_

_The Dream Master pulled the boy from his misty body. "I cannot, young one. You are under the guardianship of the Time Master and apprenticed to the King of Ghosts. Did he not explain the terms of your apprenticeship to you?"_

_"Yeah," the boy muttered._

_"Then you know what you must do. Grow, be strong, learn all you can about your kind. But be weary of the ghost hunters; they seek to use you for your knowledge of our realm. They aren't evil; they love you, but they will use you to further their own ends. Learn how their inventions work; there will come a time when you will be called upon to capture renegade spirits that prey upon the human world," the Dream Master told him._

_"So, I'm to be a ghost hunter when I grow up?" Danny asked him._

_"Follow your heart," the Dream Master said, fading from his vision._

Danny's eyes popped open as sunlight streamed through the open bedroom. The last thing he had scene in his dreams was Ember singing in a field of swollen flowers. A delicious smell rafted up to tickle his nose from downstairs.

"The Lunch Lady came for me!" he exclaimed, running down the stairs in his oversized night gown.

He was met by the sight of the whole Fenton family dressed in normal clothing, for them any way, seeing as Maddie and Jack for in their jumpsuits, while Jazz wore red bell bottoms a navy blue tank-top with a cartoon character on it, and flip-flops.

"Danny, sit down, and have some pancakes," Jack bellowed on seeing him standing in the doorway.

He obeyed and raised eyebrows when Jazz leaned over and whispered, "So long as they don't try and eat us."

He stared at her in shock.

"Where's Alice?" he asked.

Maddie turned around with a spatula in one hand and placed a stack of pancakes on the table in front of him. "Eat up, dear, we have a busy day ahead of us," she told him.

Danny stared at the plate in front of him.

The pancakes really weren't going to eat him, were they?


	16. The Devoted Thought

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Never weed whack poison ivy in the nude._

* * *

**The Devoted Thought**

* * *

Danny's little pet opened one beady yellow eye. The warmth of his master was gone. Where had he gone to?

"Plum?" he asked, wide awake all of a sudden.

Plum stared around at the strange room. No Danny here.

The room was just an ordinary guest room. No black and silver trappings like at home. Bright sunshine, no eeries swirls of green, black or purple. One ordinary wooden door, not millions leading to other lairs. Bright colors assaulted his senses.

Plum was so confused. Then, he smelled something yummy.

Danny must have gone to where the yummy smells were coming from.

Plum floated out the door, which Danny had left ajar, and down the stairs.

"Plum, Danny?" he asked, casting a questioning look at the strange surroundings.

The yummy smells beckoned from a blue room to the left.

* * *

Jazz froze, a fork halfway to her mouth.

"W-wh-what is that thing?"

Plum looked sideways at her.

"Plum?"

Danny looked up at the floating porcupine fruit.

"Oh, this is Plum," he said.

He looked back down at the pancakes. "They're not really going to try and eat me, are they, Maddie?"

"No, Danny, they won't. Jazz is just kidding, right Jazz?" her mother hissed, shooting her daughter a warning look.

"I remember the turkey from last Christmas," Jazz insisted, not taking the bait.

"Plum?" the little plum-like thing blinked in confusion.

Danny looked down at his plate and sighed. _What have I gotten into?_

"Plum, Danny?" Plum asked.

"Go ahead, Plum," Danny said, giving his pet the pancakes.

Ignoring the loud argument between mother and daughter, he fled up the stairs, pausing only when he heard Jazz yell: "I RATHER BE RAISED BY GHOSTS!" and Jack bellowing "GHOSTS? WHERE, JAZZYPANTS?"

Danny had to laugh when he heard Jazz snort in derision and tell the overly large ghost hunter that "there's no such thing as ghosts".

He hated to burst her bubble, but he differed. He _was _raised by ghosts and preferred it to the human world.

He sighed and began pulling on the spare clothes Maddie had found for him up in the attic. A bit out of date, but servicable, if you count the fact the clothes reeked of mothballs and were several sizes too big for him. Apparently, they were old clothes of Jack's from when he was Danny's age.

Danny's stomach rumbled with hunger.

"Where's Youngblood when you need him?" he moaned.

Youngblood always had food he snitched from the kitchen when Alice wasn't looking. Fruit usually, but Danny didn't mind.

Considering the fact, that was how he'd gotten Plum in the first place.

* * *

Author's Notes: There is most definitely a plot a brewin'. The quotes at the beginning are not supposed to make sense. I'm just putting them up there for fun. A cameo by Prince Aragon and Princess Dorathea appears later, but don't expect too much out of it. Aragon is just blowing smoke. As to how Danny got that power, he was born with it. Clockwork is up to something in a chapter or two.


	17. Which Princess

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Paper clip: The larval stage of coat hangers_

* * *

**Which Princess**

* * *

Finding Jorge was never an easy task. Today, for example, Alice said she'd seen him giving a new ghost, Old Simon by name, a introductory tour of the warehouse and the school. "Try the upper wing near the offices, dearies," were her parting words.

"No such luck," Ember muttered, seeing the floor deserted, except for some hobgoblins and an argus.

"Hey, Argus!" Youngblood shouted. "You seen the Box Ghost?"

"Saw him tell Old Simon about visiting the Time Master," the Argus called back, his hundred eyes orienting on them.

"Thanks!" Apricot said, waving a good-bye.

All things pointed to the Time Master retrospectively.

* * *

In the medieval kingdom of Dragonia, Prince Aragon was on a rampage. He had just received the news of Princess Ember's bethrothal to a human, who upon reaching his majority, would become Ghost King.

"A filthy human child as the ruler of the Ghost Zone? I should be the next king!" he shouted at the stone walls.

Princess Dorothea sighed from her hiding spot. 5,4,3,2,1...

A jet of flame emerged from her brother's mouth and set the tapestry alight. In dragon form, her brother was nigh unto invincible. Maybe if they got to know the boy better...

* * *

Danny's stomach was still rumbling when they got into the RV as Mrs. Fenton told him to call it.

"Can we stop and get something to eat?" he asked.

"Danny, you just consumed a huge pile of pancakes!" Maddie exclaimed. "Don't tell me you're still hungry."

"Actually, Mom, his weird pet ate the pancakes," Jazz put in her two cents worth.

Danny was silent; Plum snoozing on his lap. Plum was a little rounder when full.

"We'll stop and eat lunch while we're at the mall," Maddie sighed.

Danny smiled. The human world didn't seem so bad.

"And then we're going to register you for school at Amity Park Elementary," Maddie said.

Danny perked up at that. "Do they teach survival skills there?" he asked.

Maddie looked at him curiously in the mirror. "I would guess they do, Danny. You'll learn geography, history, languages, science, math, and the arts like any other child. Why do you ask?"

"Cause that's the terms of my apprenticeship to my Master," Danny said. "I'm supposed to learn how to survive in the human world, and then on my fourteenth birthday...Ouch, Plum!"

"Plum! Danny, Plum!" the little creature chittered at him. Apparently Plum wasn't in such a deep sleep after all.

"Oh," Danny realized Plum was right. He was revealing too much information again to the ghost hunter.

"Who is your Master?" Jazz asked.

"Never mind, dear," Maddie said, watching Danny pull a long golden needle out of his finger. "The first aid kit is in the third compartment from the top, Danny."

"Thanks," he said, getting up to fetch it.


	18. Each Illusion

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

_A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune._

* * *

**Each Illusion**

* * *

"So, why are you here?" the middle-aged reclusive billionare, Vlad Masters, asked the robotic ghost, who had crashed into his laboratory.

"Don't kill the messenger, but I've been sent to give you this by the Time Master," Skulker told him.

"Thanks," Vlad said dryly. Opening up the scroll, he picked up a key that had dropped out. The note simply read:

The boy is in the human world.

"Skulker, how would you like to do a job for me?" Vlad asked, an evil grin on his face.

"What do you have in mind?" the robotic ghost asked suspiciously.

"Just a one-of-a-kind prey I'd like you to hunt down for me," Vlad said, examining his manicure.

"I'm listening," Skulker said, an evil smirk on his face.

* * *

Danny scowled at the khaki pants the ghost hunter made him try on. "It's too airy!" he complained.

"Danny, I've already told you. You can't wear jeans, tshirts, and sneakers all the time. I've already bought you enough of those. You need to branch out more," Maddie told him.

He glared at her and walked out of the dressing room, modeling off the clothes. The ghost hunter smiled at him.

"Looks better," she told him.

So far, Maddie and Jazz had drilled two lessons into him. Only weird, spooky people wore black and silver all the time-Danny didn't see anything wrong with his basic colors-and you couldn't wear the same thing over and over again.

He sighed and walked back into the dressing room, carrying along a brown sweater and matching corduroy pants. Maddie had insisted he pick out some winter things as well.

"Plum?" Plum asked, turning a mottled yellow shade.

"It's not funny, Plum," Danny said, slumping on the little stool. "I hate living here."

He looked down at the band-aid on his finger. It hadn't been the first time Plum had stuck him, but it still hurt the dickens.

* * *

"So you want me to hunt down a human child who can banish ghosts?" Skulker asked his employer increduously.

"Yes," Vlad answered, "it's imperative that you make it look like the ghost hunters did it to him."

"Right," Skulker commented.

* * *

Ember, Apricot, and Youngblood caught up to Jorge and Old Simon outside on the grounds. "Hi, Jorge," Apricot chirped. "Have you been to see Clockwork yet?"

"And these are the nosy young ones I was telling you about," the Box Ghost said, grinning at them. "We've just returned, actually."

"Nice to meet friends of Danny's," Old Simon said.

Youngblood snorted in derision. "Hey, Boxy, can we ask a favor of you?"

"My name is Jorge, whippersnapper," the Box Ghost told him evenly. "What kind of favor?"

"Ghost Writer assigned us to write an essay on ghost hunters and the human world. We were wondering if you knew of a way for us to get there so we could do some, uh, research," the ghost child said, crossing his fingers behind his back.

"_You_, doing research?" the Box Ghost asked him, arching an eyebrow.

"Hey, he actually does his homework once in a blue moon," Apricot defended him.

"And this wouldn't have anything to do with Danny, would it?" Jorge asked them.

"Nope," the three expert liars lied.

"Then I don't see the harm, so long as you don't hurt anyone," Jorge said.

The Time Master had been explicit in his terms for allowing the children to go out into the human world. Danny still needed some form of contact with the Ghost Zone, especially with an evil halfa bent on his destruction looming over the horizon.


	19. The Seventh Girl

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn._

* * *

**The Seventh Girl**

* * *

"There you go, Mrs. Fenton," the Social Services agent said, handing over the paperwork. "All I need is for you and Danny to sign your names and it's done."

Danny blinked. "Sign my name to what?"

"To this line here," the social worker said, smiling at him. She smiled so much that she was beginning to creep him out.

Five minutes later, it was done. Danny was now officially a Fenton. Jazz whooped when she heard the news.

"Maddie?" Danny asked.

"Yes," Maddie said, hugging him tightly.

"Do I have to call you Mom now?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

Tears filled his eyes. "I never knew my real parents. Jorge says he found me in a dumpster."

"Real parents don't abandon their children," Maddie said, gently wiping the tears coursing down his face. "Real parents nurture their children's abilities, no matter how unique they are."

"Okay," Danny said, thinking back to his singular ability to banish ghosts. Where had it come from? Had he been born with it?

"Plum, guess what? Maddie's my new mom! We signed some papers and I have a new name and a new family," he said, a bit too excitely, nearly crushing his pet in the process.

"PLUM!" Plum protested, turning a bright lime green.

"Oh, sorry, Plum," Danny said, letting his pet breathe air.

"Danny, Box," Plum said, reminding him of his ghostly adoptive father's sacrifice.

Danny was dumbstruck. How could he have forgotten, so quickly?

"Plum," Plum said, his work done. It felt good to learn a new word now and then.

Maddie noticed Danny's glum expression when she and Jazz climbed into the RV a few moments later.

"Danny, I thought you were excited," Jazz said. What had happened in the few minutes between the doors of the Brandywine Building and the RV?

"Danny," Maddie began, to find Danny jerking back from her touch. "Are you...?"

"This is just another trick to use me, ghost hunter," he spat. "Let's go sign up for this human school, so I can go home."

Maddie was hurt by Danny's caustic remark, but she knew she shouldn't have expected less from him. He was still reminded of his past. His little pet, no matter how cute, was going to have to go. It was too clearly an impediment to Danny's integration back into a human society.

* * *

"It's so cool!" Youngblood shouted, dressed up in his pirate gear.

"He'll never reform," the Parrot said to Ember and Apricot.

"We know," Apricot said grinning. "Now let's find Danny and bring him home."

"Where do we even begin?" Ember asked, looking around. The place was literally crawling with people.

"Why don't we ask someone?" Apricot suggested.

"Good idea," Youngblood said, floating down to the ground.

Walking up to a portly middle-aged man with balding black-hair and green eyes, he tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, sir?"

"Yes?" the man turned around. "_Treasure Island!_ Ghosts!" he yelled, running through the halls.

"Mr. Lancer? Oh boy, teacher running in the halls!" an African-American boy with green eyes and the tackiest clothing exclaimed, popping out of a door.

The boy was about Danny's age and this appeared to be some sort of human education facility.

He heard someone clear his throat behind him.

Three ghosts around his age waved at him. One of them was clearly only half-human. She was the one who shoved the pirate ghost to the side and swam over to him.

"Uh, hi," Tucker greeted her. She was few years younger than he was.

"Please, don't be afraid. We're looking for a human boy around seven years old or so; he has a mop of black hair that always needs cutting and ice blue eyes. His name's Danny," she said.

"Are you a ghost?" he asked lamely.

"I'm not; they are though. I'm Apricot; these are Ember McClaine and Youngblood," she introduce them.

"I'm Tucker Foley and whatever you did to freak out our teacher, thanks! He murders our free time with his boring lectures," Tucker told her. "Come on inside."

The three of them looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"Well, we did promise Jorge we'd do research," Youngblood said.

"_You_ promised Jorge we'd do research," Ember reminded him.

"Oh, quit arguing already, maybe someone in here will know Danny," Apricot broke them apart.

The temperature in the classroom dropped a few degrees as its newest students entered.

* * *

Clockwork and Pariah Dark observed the scene unfold.

"I hope you have a reason for this," Pariah growled at him.

"Yes, I've arranged for Plasmius to set a hunter on Danny's trail. Vlad Masters will give him a run for his money to be sure; Danny will learn to be very cunning by the time he undergoes the change from human to halfa," the Time Master said.

It took a few minutes for the Ghost King to assimilate this. "You did _what_?" he shouted, rising from his throne.

Clockwork grinned. "Oopsy!"

Pariah glared and sat back down. "I'll 'oopsy' you one of these days," he grumbled.

Clockwork just changed to his child form. "I have all the time in my hands to wait," he replied, knowing the Ghost King would never carry out his threat.

* * *

Danny followed Maddie up the steps to the school. He had changed into a pair of jeans, a red and white tshirt, and a pair of red and white sneakers. He thought back to all the girls he had ever met.

One. Ember.

Two. Alice.

Three. Apricot.

Four. The Girl in the alley.

Five. Maddie

Six. Jazz.

Seven. The Girl in the alley again.

Danny stared at her. She was dressed in a horrendous pink and yellow dress with white sandals, her raven hair falling about her shoulders. She was seated on a bench in between an African-American boy who was fiddling with some sort of handheld technological device and a heavy-set boy with blue eyes and blond hair who kept shivering, darting glances around the room and muttering something about spectral parrots-or was it pirates?

"Sit here, Danny, while I go and talk to the principal," Maddie told him, indicating the last empty spot next to the girl.

"Alright, Maddie, I mean Mom," he slapped his forehead. _I've got to remember she's my mother now; ghost hunter or not._

"It's alright, Danny. You'll get used to it in time," Maddie reassured him.

Danny was thankful Jazz had gone to her class, since it technically was a school day. Maddie had signed her in after explaining the situation to the school secretary.

Danny looked over at the other kids and did a double take when the girl's eyes met his.

"You!" he shouted.

"You!" she exclaimed.

"I think you owe her a soda, Danny," the dark skinned boy said.

"How did you know my name?" Danny asked.

"Plum?" Plum asked, appearing behind him.

"I thought Maddie told you that you couldn't come to school with me," Danny told Plum.

"Plum," Plum said firmly.

"Alright, but I'm not bailing you out of trouble in the lunch room," he warned Plum.

"It was funny though," he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"Youngblood? Ember? Apricot? What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

No sooner had his three friends phased into the room and turned visible when the blond-haired boy saw them, yelled and ran out of the room.

"Anyone who can scare Dash is a friend of mine," the girl said. "My name is Samantha Manson. Call me anything but Sam and I will hurt you."

Ember grinned. "I think we've made a new friend."

At that moment, the principal walked out of his office with Maddie Fenton.

All three ghosts froze.

Danny gulped as his new mother's eyes fell on him.

Busted.


	20. Invisible Stream

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_You sound reasonable...Time to up my medication._

* * *

**Invisible Stream**

* * *

Maddie gave a deep sigh, as she examined the culprits. Three otherworldly creatures, two of which she was sure were ghosts, and one who was...did she have a tail? Yep, definitely a tail.

"Danny, would you come here please?" she asked her son politely.

Danny paled and looked quickly at Ember, who grabbed him and turned them invisible.

"Danny!" he heard his adoptive mother cry out.

"Plum!" Plum said defiantly. He didn't like the woman.

"So what do we do now?" Youngblood asked, now that they were safely away from the humans.

"Duh, Danny can come back home," Apricot told him.

"Danny, what is going on?" Sam asked.

"I'm not sure," Danny replied.

"Well, let's get going," Youngblood said. "We've got Danny, so let's go home."

"Hold it, Youngblood, I can't go back to the Ghost Zone," Danny told him.

"Why not, Danny? It's your home as well as ours," Apricot said, a bit confused.

Only Ember understood the ramifications if Danny disobeyed his Master.

"You sure?" she asked him.

"Yes, you know what King Pariah said," he reminded her.

"Said what?" Tucker asked, wondering what they were talking about.

Danny sighed. "Where I come from, every seven years old child is apprenticed to a Master and learns his or her craft. It takes seven years of apprenticeship, three of journeyman status, before he or she can become a Master in his or her own right."

"And?" Sam asked, motioning for him to continue.

"Apricot, Ember, Youngblood, and I were talking with Jorge about my upcoming apprenticeship and the fact that I hadn't chosen a Master yet," Danny said.

"I still think you should have chosen the Dream Master," Youngblood interrupted the story.

"Ick, twerp! Why would he want to go rooting around in someone's heads at night? He really should have chosen the Time Master," Apricot said, hitting him in the shoulder.

"Well, now thanks to Desiree, I'm apprenticed to King Pariah!" Danny snapped at them.

"What? Prove it!" Youngblood challenged him.

Danny held up his right hand, revealing the ring he wore.

"You never told us that part!" Apricot screeched at Ember.

"Oh, cool! So, you're the next King of Ghosts. Oh snap! Ember wasn't joking when she said she had to marry you," Youngblood fell to the ground laughing.

Sam and Tucker were highly amused by the situation, but Sam was beginning to be worried.

"Danny, what if your mother comes looking for us?" she asked him.

"I don't care. She nothing but a blasted ghost hunter and I could care less," he answered recklessly.

"Then I'm going to have to change your opinion of me, Daniel Fenton," Maddie said, using that infuriating tone all mothers had. None of them knew how she had found them.

She cocked her head to one side. "Kids, the school is only a few blocks from here. Why don't you head back?"

"But we want to stay..." Tucker began, only to have Sam cut off his protest.

"Yes, ma'am," Sam said, grabbing Tucker by the collar and dragging him off before he could protest any further.

"Danny, come here and sit on the swings with me," Maddie said.

Danny, wary of her, did as she asked. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

"We haven't gotten off to a great start, have we?" Maddie asked him.

"No," the boy answered, looking down at the ground.

"Plum!" Plum screamed at her.

"Hush," Ember whispered to him.

"Danny, I would like you to come back to the school with me," Maddie told him. "The laws of the human world are strict on this. As for Plum, I'm afraid he has to go."

Danny jerked his head up. "No!"

Plum turned yellow with fear. "Plum, Danny, plum!"

"Plum, you may not have a choice," Apricot told him.

"Jack and I are working on a portal to the world of ghosts so we can better understand them," Maddie explained further. "It will be several years before it is up and running."

"Several years!" Danny yelled.

"How about we make a deal, the five of us?" Maddie said, turning to the three supernatural creatures. "I propose until the time Danny turns 14, he has no or very limited contact with the Ghost Zone."

"No dice," Youngblood told her.

"Let me finish," Maddie told him. "Danny, when the portal is activated, will be allowed to come and go as he wishes to visit and vice versa. Until that time comes, Danny will live as a normal human child."

"Let us discuss this," Ember told her, motioning for Danny to join them.

"Whether we like it or not, she's going to find some excuse to get rid of Plum," Danny told them.

"I agree; I still don't think Father was right to send you here-humans are not to be trusted, especially these ghost hunters," Ember replied.

"We're going to learn the location of every portal that comes near here and visit whenever we want to," Youngblood vowed.

"Or just ask Wulf nicely," Apricot suggested.

"That too," he conceded.

"Mom," Danny said, acting as speaker for the group. "I'm going to stay here as it is stated in the terms of my apprenticeship to my Master. I won't have any contact with ghosts if I can help it, but Plum stays."

"Agreed," she said, thinking about it.

"Stay with Danny, plum," the little pet said.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say Plum is expanding his vocabulary," Apricot whispered toYoungblood.

"I wish the Parrot would do the opposite," Youngblood whispered back.

Both of them giggled at the memory of the cauliflower incident a few nights ago.


	21. Forgotten Shadow

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Christmas: All I want for Christmas is a box of Smurfs and a mallet._

* * *

**Forgotten Shadow**

* * *

About three years had passed since Danny had arrived in the human world. He was now ten years of age.

The boy had grown like a sprig, but remained scrawny and small. His raven hair was always in need of cutting and his clothes were too baggy. Perfectly normal.

Maddie opened the door to the school office and sighed when she saw Danny sitting on the bench. "Plum or the ring?" she asked.

"Ring, this time," Danny said, looking down at his right hand. "Dash tried to steal it from me, but it electrocuted him."

"A mild zap, I hope?" Maddie queried.

"Well, his hair glows in the dark," Danny confided, grinning.

Mother and son had a good laugh before she went in to see Principal Skyler, the new school 'head boss' as Danny put it.

* * *

"Mrs. Fenton, your son is disruptive, destroys school property, and does not have the basic fundamentals someone his age should have in education," Principal Skyler began, as soon as the door was shut.

Maddie listened as he outline cases where Danny was always being followed around by a shadow, people were scared of him, and he was in violation of school policy which forbade boys wearing jewelry to school.

"The ring was a gift to him," Maddie interrupted his tirade. "Danny has had it for so long that it won't come off. I heard about what happened with the Baxter boy. You should be more concerned with school bullies than with what my son does."

The principal flushed with embarrassment. "Mrs. Fenton..."

"Maybe I should home school Danny instead," she said, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"T-that won't be necessary," Principal Skyler stuttered.

"Goodbye, then," she rose to her feet and left a stunned school principal wondering what had just happened.

Maddie Fenton may be a crackpot, but she was a formidable one.

"Come on, Danny. Plum drop the invisibility act; I know you're there," she said to the empty air beside his head.

"Bad man not hurt Danny?" Plum asked.

"No, but neither are you two staying here for the rest of the day," Maddie said. "Go and collect your homework."

"Plum!" Danny shouted, echoing his pet.

Maddie's mouth twitched slightly. She loved the boy dearly. She was proud of him and of Plum. Plum had nearly doubled his vocabulary since arriving and could string together sentences, albeit incorrect grammar, but they were working on that. He didn't always say 'plum' any more either. Plum had also learned to turn invisible to avoid unnecessary staring.

Maddie sighed. Maybe it was time to try and locate Danny's birth parents again.

So, far no evidence had ever turned up that they had ever even existed.

Most strange indeed.

* * *

Alice and Jorge were on the petitioner's bench awaiting audience with King Pariah.

The doors swung open to reveal the Fright Knight slice a neat gash in Prince Aragon's armor with the Soul Shredder. The Dragon Prince screamed, then vanished.

Turning his helmeted head to the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady, he smiled.

"You may enter," he said in cool overtones.

"I don't like it when he smiles," Alice whispered.

"Never bodes well," Jorge agreed, as they entered the doors.

"Alice, Jorge, welcome," King Pariah greeted them warmly.

"Majesty," they bowed.

"How is young Danny abiding on the earth?" the Ghost King asked.

"The Ring of Rage is the recent subject of Danny's tussle with the school bully," Jorge said.

"Youngblood was just there, unseen," Alice added. "We have Apricot and Youngblood taking turns watching out for him. Ember too, if I believe."

"Hmm, so that's where she disappears to," Pariah Dark muttered.

"And the Fentons' plans for the ghost portal?" came the query.

"They keep getting the calculations wrong," Jorge said. "I've watched them work on it several evenings ago."

"I see," King Pariah said. "Thank you."

Both knew a dismissal when they saw one and took their leave of the Ghost King's palace.

* * *

"You're mine now, whelp!" were the first words to greet Danny when he opened the bedroom door.

"Not you again!" he yelled, flinging his bag at the robotic ghost, who always chasing him.

"Mom, Skulker's in the house!" he yelled, running down the stairs and into the living room. A launched missile exploded into the television, showering the room with sparks.

"Hey, I was watching that!" Jack Fenton glared at the intruder.

"Not sorry," Skulker said, giving chase to the Fenton boy.

"Give up, whelp, there's no place you can hide," he said, cornering the boy by the kitchen fridge.

"Guess again," the whelp answered, opening the door. "Sic 'em!"

Skulker's screams as the ecto-weiners attacked him brought a smile to Jack Fenton's face. "That's my boy! This is _way _better than watching television."

He and Maddie had decided long ago that Danny was to deal with this particular ghost himself. The boy proved to be quite agile and learned by instinct and reflex, even if he couldn't pass gym.


	22. The Hot Stone

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police._

* * *

**The Hot Stone**

* * *

"Hey, Skulker, catch!" the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter heard, just before something small impacted with his chest, knocking him down.

"What is it?" he asked, picking up a ...

"A rock? You have got to be jesting! How can that harm a ghost?" he stared at the small red-haired woman who appeared in the stairwell to the basement.

"Just a small gift for you," Maddie said, smiling at him.

"A gift, eh? Let me look at this gift," the ghost muttered, forgetting in the process his mission.

Danny couldn't help release a snicker since Skulker's gift was his first ghost invention. Maddie had decided to teach Danny all that she and Jack knew about ghosts, how to catch them, and how to make weapons that could hurt them. This device had been his idea.

Skulker stared at a small white glittery speck that stood out from all the other glittery crystals of mica in the rock. He ran his thumb over it, and then jazz music started to play.

"I like the music woman, but what does this have to do with...AAAHH!" he screamed as white ectoplasmic fire mix with red and green engulfed him.

"I call it the Fenton Hot Potato," Maddie said. "This is Danny's first ghost weapon."

Skulker's armor was now glowing fiery red and parts of it were melting off. He glared at the whelp. "Turning ghost hunter now, are we, whelp? King Pariah will here about how his precious heir has turned against his liege lord!"

With that, Maddie whipped out a thermos and sucked him in. "I don't think so."

* * *

Apricot was extremely nervous. Danny hadn't even thought to use his unique ghost-banishing power in all the time that Skulker had been hunting him. And now the ghost hunter claimed him as her own apprentice.

She bit her lip and looked around. She had to tell someone, but who? A light bulb flashed in her brain. Clockwork!

Danny looked in amazement at the Fenton Thermos in his mother's hands. "I thought you guys couldn't get that to work?"

"It didn't until I figured out Jack went and put the on switch on the inside. He's had a bad rash of doing that lately," she admitted.

"Oh," Danny said, not realizing something important had just been mentioned. Something that would change his life forever in a few short years.


	23. The Fire's Waves

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out._

* * *

**The Fire's Waves**

* * *

Two scenes showed in the portals' depths as Clockwork examined the paths of Time's twisting skeins. The first portal showed a rabbit skidding across an icy pond, while the second showed Danny being quizzed again by the ghost hunters on specifics about ghosts, their abilities and weaknesses, and other such trivial matters.

_A petite woman, well endowed, came flying across the room. She was chasing the rabbit, who was trying to escape being milked._

_"Pietr, come back here!" she called to her rabbit, who just chittered and scampered away._

_"Blasted animal," she muttered under her breath and swung her hand out in a half circle flourish. A bank of snow rose up and encompassed the rabbit, freezing itself compact against the snowy white body._

_"Silly, Pietr," the woman said, her brown eyes twinkling with mischief. "Let's go home before Master awakens."_

Clockwork looked to the second portal.

_"Danny," Maddie Fenton asked her son, "tell me more about the Masters."_

_The ten-years old raven haired boy batted ice blue eyes at her. "No," he said._

_Maddie looked down at him. "No?"_

_"No," he repeated firmly, folding his arms. "You're just using me to try and harm my friends," he said._

_"Danny, I would never do that," Maddie assured him. "I just want to know more about the paranormal world. My life has been devoted to studying them."_

_The boy bit his lower lip._

The first portal reclaimed his attention.

_The woman's long, dark brown hair was straight and flat and reached down to her waist. She was milking a black-and-white splotched mountain goat who was determined to eat the tin pail she was squeezing the milk into._

_"Silly, Pietr," she said, affectionally rubbing the goat's beard._

_"Bleah," Pietr responded, nipping her hand._

And at the other window...

_"Danny, stop being obstinate and just wash the dishes," Maddie said, as the boy in question stopped up his ears._

_"You're not my mother!" he snapped._

_"Danny, we all have chores to do around here," Jack said, coming into the room. "You need to help keep this house clean. Maddie and I can't do everything ourselves."_

_"I don't care!" he yelled, running out the room and up the stairs. _

_Jazz was nearly bowled over by her little brother, who whizzed past her and slammed the door shut._

_"What's wrong with Danny?" she asked her parents, who were sitting in the kitchen, eyes downcast._

_"He's starting to ask questions about his real parents," Maddie said quietly. "I've tried looking, but I can't find any trace of them at all. It's like they don't even exist."_

_"And we've decided that Danny is at the age to where he can start helping more around the house; he refuses to do the dishes," her father added._

_"Duh, because that's my job," Jazz told him. "I tried showing him how the ecto-washer works, but he was too freaked out to even touch it. I think he's too freaked out about us using ectoplasm in a lot of our appliances."_

_"Ectoplasm is ghost blood," Danny answered, coming in the kitchen. "Sorry, Plum told me to come down and apologize for my behavior."_

_"Plum," Plum said, firmly, floating in on his heels._

Clockwork sighed and erased both scenes from his windows depicting present events and opened two new portals depicting the past.

One showed briefly a tear-stained teenage girl dressed in polar garb, giving birth to a human child, the only offspring of the Fright Knight.

_"You must give him to me," Clockwork had told her. "If your offspring grows up under the tutelage of the Dark Paladin, both our worlds will plunge into darkness. As it is, he is born with the gift to banish ghosts, though weak it will be for a time, it will wax strong with his age."_

_"He's not stamped with his father's cruelty and power," the woman protested._

_"Sarah Wright, you, yourself, have been showing signs of cryokinesis. Your apprenticeship to Frostbite will be challenging indeed if you are to master your gift. You have no time to raise a child," Clockwork replied._

_"What will you do with him?" Sarah asked him._

_"Only Time will tell," Clockwork answered, taking the sleeping newborn from her. _

The second portal now showed the Box Ghost picking up the sleeping baby from the dumpster.

"Don't stand in the doorway gawking, Apricot," the Time Master said.

* * *

Author's Note: One of my co-workers has been giving me grief ever since I drew a picture of Plum. We were discussing the up-coming plans for this story, when she hatched this idea. The psychotic rabbit/goat is hers as is the name of Danny's birth mother. The next chapter is partially her idea was well.


	24. Shadowy Woman

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener._

* * *

**Shadowy Woman**

* * *

Apricot rolled her eyes upward. If it's one thing she wished she could do, it was to be the first person ever to sneak up on Clockwork.

Fast chance of that ever happening.

A hazy image in a new portal opened up.

_An older looking Danny posed for a picture holding up some type of skintight clothing, like the one the ghost hunter who adopted him usually wore._

"Clockwork, what's going on in this window," she asked her Master. She had been apprenticed to the Time Master for about half a human year now.

"That's a future window. Danny from that time on will no longer be human. Now, what shocked you on earth, child?"

Apricot watched the Danny in the portal talking with the human boy and girl they met about three years ago, as humans reckoned time.

"Danny invented a ghost weapon. It looks like an ordinary rock with bits of mica in it, but it when it activates, it plays really odd swingy type music and then hits you with excruciating multi-colored ectoplasmic fire," she said, while watching Danny put on the jumpsuit and pause for another picture.

"It's a weapon specifically designed to work on Skulker and Skulker alone," Clockwork said, watching the new scene come alive.

_Danny walked into the maw of something made of metal and plastic and wires. What had gone wrong with it? _

Apricot moaned something alone the lines of "just when it's starting to get juicy" when the screen turned to snow.

Clockwork laughed. "It's a private moment shared by the three of them," he said, closing the window.

Apricot sighed. "You're no fun," she said, pouting a little.

"I'd prefer that way," Clockwork told his apprentice evenly. "You have work to do, I believe."

"Rats!" Apricot exclaimed, examining the huge mound of broken pocket watches Clockwork wanted her to replace their gears.

Clockwork didn't have to see the new window to know what was displayed in it. The misty form of a human woman, clad in white, was plainly visible on the globe; Danny's mother was accepting Frostbite's wedding proposal.

"Wait a little while longer," Clockwork whispered before turning around to comment on Apricot's slow progress.


	25. Dreamer of Ice

A Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Grape jelly does not melt in hot tea._

* * *

**Dreamer of Ice**

* * *

"The boy did _what_?" Vlad shouted, when Skulker told him about the latest attempt to capture the boy.

"You heard me correctly the first time, Plasmius," the robotic ghost replied.

"We may have to try another approach," Masters said, pacing the length of the room.

Vlad Masters aka Vlad Plasmius looked down at the key in his hand. Clockwork had warned him not to do it unless all attempts to retrieve the boy failed.

"I have no recourse, but one," he sighed.

* * *

Danny closed his eyes and snuggled down under the covers. After he explained about his feelings regarding ectoplasm, Maddie and Jack understood him better. Maddie went out to the grocery store around the corner and bought some dishwashing liquid, some powerful off brand they sell in one of those dollar stores you see everywhere.

Jazz showed him how to wash dishes by hand. It was tiring and hard work, but he thought it was grand fun until he cut himself on a piece of glass. Maddie patched him up right as rain.

Jazz volunteered to finish the dishes, so Maddie sat Danny down and explained why children did chores in the house, again. It seemed she had this conversation with him frequently.

The Dream Master entered the room and groaned. The boy was not yet asleep, so how was he to siphon off his dream energy? Well, no use wasting time. Placing his hands on the boy's forehead, he sent him off to dreamland.

_Danny stood in the middle of a village in the ice fields. He was in the Far Frozen, the land of the yetis, whose leader was Frostbite, the cryokinetics Master._

_A black-and-white mountain goat was tethered nearby trying to eat some tundra grass peeking through the snow, when it sensed the newcomer. Turning its head as far as it could, it saw the boy. _

_"A goat in the icelands?" Danny muttered to himself._

_"Most unusual, isn't it?" a deep voice resounded from behind him._

_Danny turned around to find himself face to face with Clanleader Frostbite._

_"You seem a bit misty, boy," the yeti observed._

_"I'm in the human world, dreaming, I think," Danny answered, a bit confused._

_"Well then, can't have you stare all day at a goat's behind, can we?" Frostbite replied, chuckling at his joke._

_The goat in question transformed into a rabbit, slipped its tether and followed them indoors. The rabbit hopped over to Danny and bit his leg. His blood was green!_

Danny sat up in bed, screaming in pain. The sudden flare of the lights blinded him as Maddie rushed into the room, holding a glowing staff. Jack, not far behind, bellowed: "WHERE'S THE GHOST?"

"Honey, what's wrong?" Maddie asked, after sending Jack back to bed.

"I had a weird dream," Danny said, pulling the covers tighter around him. "I was in the lands of the Far Frozen, and a mountain goat turned into a rabbit and bit me."

"An odd nightmare," Maddie said, relieved it was something worse. Danny had begun watching horror movies with his friends, Sam and Tucker. _That_ was something she would have to keep an eye on.

"A rabbit bit you and you screamed?" Jazz asked sleepily from the doorway. "And I got up for that? I'm going back to bed."

Danny rolled his eyes at her. "My blood was green," he whispered, before falling asleep again.

Maddie was alarmed.

Danny was dreaming about the Ghost Zone again.

She was going to have to talk to Jack about this first thing in the morning after the kids left for school.


	26. Burning Windows

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Old is when your friends compliment you on your alligator shoes, and you are bare-foot._

* * *

**Burning Windows**

* * *

"Morning, sweetie," Maddie greeted Danny when he came downstairs for breakfast.

He grunted and held up one hand with three golden spikes sticking out.

"Ouch!" Maddie said, getting the first aid kit.

"Panties?" Plum asked, floating into the room, black as night.

"Pancakes," Jazz corrected, looking up from her mushy cereal. "Panties are a female undergarment."

"Oh," Plum said, turning mottled red, showing his embarrassment. "Plum."

"Not today," Maddie said, taking a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit, causing Danny to go pale. "I'm sorry, Danny, but I have to."

Danny gritted his teeth. He had accidentally squished Plum with his pillow, causing his pet to thrust the spikes outwards so that he could breathe.

"Danny, boy, come straight home after school," Jack said, putting down his newspaper. "Your mother and I want to have a talk with you."

"What about now? Ow!" he yelled, as Maddie applied the hydrogen peroxide.

"Your dreams," Jack replied, taking a sip of his breakfast tea. He was one of those rare adults who didn't care for the taste of coffee.

"Oh," Danny mumbled, staring down at the hand which Maddie had bandaged. At least the Ring of Rage was now hidden from sight. Hopefully, Dash wouldn't get any bright ideas.

* * *

Vlad Plasmius stood before the impressive stone fortress which housed the formidable presence of the Fright Night.

He stared at the key in his hand.

_Do I really want to do this?_

He sighed. He had no other recourse.

* * *

"What happened to your hand?" Tucker asked, staring at Danny's bandaged hand.

"Squished Plum," his best friend mumbled.

"Ouch!" Tucker sympathised.

"What got you so down?" Sam asked, her spider backpack swinging from one strap on her shoulders. "Paulina move out of town?"

"Keep dreaming, Sam," Danny said, kicking at some rocks in the path they were following. "I really hate the human world and want to go home."

"The adoption issue," Sam said, answering her own question. "Still no luck finding your birth parents?"

"None and the nightmares aren't helping either," Danny replied. "I just want to go to go back to the Ghost Zone," he repeated.

"That can be arranged, whelp," Skulker's dark voice said from above them.

"RUN!" Danny shouted, grabbing Tucker and Sam and hightailed it as fast as their legs could go.

Skulker scratched his head and blinked. "Uh..." He had only wanted to talk to the boy, nothing more. He shrugged his shoulders. He knew where to find the boy if need be.

"Think we lost him?" Tucker asked, peeking out from behind some bushes.

"Danny, I don't think he was even following us," Sam said, leaning over, trying to catch her breath.

"I don't know; he's been hunting me for three years and was really mad at me for hitting him with the Fenton Hot Potato yesterday," Danny said, casting another glance skyward, looking for any hint of an invisible ghost.

_Bring! _The school bell rang out signifying the beginning of a new day.

"Oh crud!" Tucker sighed. "Another detention in the bag for the trio...Yippee, kiyay!"

"Shut-up, Tucker," Sam growled at him.

Later that day, the trio met up for lunch and were greatly relieved to find out they had a substitute and missed getting that detention.

"Hey, baby pop," Ember said, appearing in a cloud of blue fire. "I heard from Apricot you're apprenticed to a ghost hunter?"

Danny sighed. "Your singing still sucks," he said, taking a loud slurp from his milk bag.

"And you're searching for your real parents, right? Apricot's got a lead on your mother," Ember said, ignoring Danny's jab.

"It stinks so bad that Desiree granted everyone's wish to become deaf at last year's Christmas party," Danny answered.

"And here I am trying to be nice," Ember said, her green eyes twinkling. "Well, if you're going to insult your future wife..."

"What?" Danny yelled, rising swiftly to his feet, shoving his tray aside.

"Hey, Fentoad, I knew you were weird, but never thought you would stoop so low to marry a dead corpse!" Dash called, laughing at his own joke. Ember's appearances no longer fazed the jocks, but boy, were they pushing it today.

Ember summoned her guitar in a flash of blue flame. "You're going down, dipstick!" she shouted, turning the dial to a pink fist.

Danny felt the power rising. His eyes began to glow.

"Uh, Ember, maybe you shouldn't," Sam murmured, knowing the danger the ghost girl was in.

Ember looked back at the table and saw Danny clench his fists, eyes aglow.

"Baby pop?" she queried, fear evident in her voice.

* * *

"I have a son?" the Fright Knight said to Plasmius. "Why choose to tell me now?"

"The boy is the Ghost King's apprentice," Plasmius cooly replied.

"My son is _Daniel?"_came the outraged voice of the Dark Paladin. His yellow eyes glowed brightly in anger.

"The woman is not to blame," Plasmius said, trying to calm the chivalric ghost down.

"The hell she isn't!" the Fright Knight shouted. "I loved that woman and gave my heart to her and she goes and abandons my son in the human world where he might have died!"

"She didn't commit the act," Vlad reiterated. "It was Clockwork, acting on orders from the Observants."

Vlad held out the key.

"Put this in any lock, and it will bring you to Daniel," he said quietly.

The Fright Knight study the simple bronze key and sneered in contempt for its simplicity. He strode over to a door on the opposite end of the room and whistled for his winged steed, Nightmare.

"I choose to use it, now," the Spirit of Halloween said, turning the key in the lock. A portal formed in front of them; it's eerie green swirls beckoning him to enter.

"Onward, Nightmare, let us fetch my son home."

They vanished into the portal.

Vlad heaved a sigh of relief.

"It is is done, Clockwork, as you asked."

"Good," the Time Master said, emerging from the shadows. "All is falling into place."


	27. The Lost Snow

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_"We're StarFleet officers, Mr. Kim. Weird's just part of the job" - Captain Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager_

* * *

**The Lost Snow**

* * *

"Baby pop, please, you don't want to do this," Ember's pleading fell on deaf ears.

Danny's eyes were now full blazing lunar white.

Tucker and Sam gulped with fear and backed away from Danny slowly. Whatever Danny was, he wasn't human.

"_P.S. I Love You_, Fenton, what is going on in here?" Mr. Lancer's voice broke through the dead silence.

"Dude, that's sick," Tucker commented dryly.

Danny turned to look at Tucker and blinked. His eyes turned icy blue for an instant before returning to their glowing state.

Ember sighed. She really hated to do this...

"Plum?" she asked the shimmering air behind Sam.

"Plum, Ember," he replied, showing himself.

"Stick him," she said, pointing at Danny.

Plum stared at his young master. "Why?" he asked.

Ember smiled. " 'Cause I said so," she replied.

"Okay," Plum said, his quills glowing gold.

"Plum!" a boy's outraged scream echoed throughout the school cafeteria.

* * *

"That was the school nurse," Maddie said, hanging up the phone.

"What happened now?" Jack asked wearily.

"Danny got into a lover's tiff with Ember in the cafeteria and Plum stuck him again," she said.

Jack groaned. "Sometimes I think we should have never adopted Danny," he said.

"Good, then taking my son home won't be so wearisome," a dark voice echoed from behind them.

Both Fentons spun around to see a ghostly pegasus phase through the wall with its armored rider, sword fully drawn, glaring down menacingly at them.

Maddie gulped, while Jack pulled out a small ecto-cannon and then looked from weapon to ghost. "I'm going to need something a bit bigger, I think," he muttered. Maddie groaned.

* * *

Sarah Wright stroked Pietr's long silky ears, while she nibbled on a carrot. She thought about her son. Where was he? What was he doing? Did he show any ghostly traits from his father?

His father.

What if the Dark Paladin found out?

She closed her eyes.

Nocturne chose that moment to strike.

_Pietr was curled up against the hearth with a snow kitten who was washing the rabbit's fur. The little rabbit chose that moment to nip the kitten's fur, causing the kitten to swipe her with his paw. Pietr shot out the door, chased by the kitten._

_Both chased each other back and forth over the snow-covered ground, while Frostbite and Sarah watched on in amusement._

_It was very amusing to see a kitten treed by a tiny rabbit._

_The kitten meowed softly, while the tiny rabbit turned its back on the kitten and tree and rubbed its whiskers with its left paw. Just when the kitten decided it was safe to come down..._

_Wham!_

_The mountain goat butted the tree hard causing the snow kitten to fall out and upon its back._

_"Oh, Pietr!" Sarah said laughing._

_Frostbite looked up to see a misty form beginning to take shape._

_The boy was back. _

_And he wasn't alone._


	28. The Night's Slave

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Author's Note: There are two Frostbites. The one in the dreams and the real one. Sorry for the confusion.

* * *

_"Life moves out of a red flare of dreams into a common light of common hours." William Butler Yeats_

* * *

**The Night's Slave**

* * *

Frostbite looked in on his beloved. She was fast asleep, the snow kitten and Pietr on her lap. He smiled, then frowned. Something wasn't right.

_Sarah gripped Frostbite's arm with fear. Who were these strangers? Odd, but they all looked to be-no, they were-children._

Frostbite tried shaking Sarah to make her wake-up. Her head flopped over like a rag doll. She wasn't dead, but in a coma, perhaps?

_"Who are you?" Sarah asked._

_The children spun around. She could barely make out the forms of two boys and two girls. One was black-haired and blue eyed. A bit like herself-only misty-like the others._

_She blinked back her tears and spoke her son's name for the first time since his birth._

_"Daniel?"_

_The black haired boy turned his head and looked straight at her._

* * *

The school nurse wet another rag and wiped the boy's sweaty forehead. As a result of the melee in the school cafeteria, Daniel Fenton, Tucker Foley, Samantha Manson, and a ghost named Ember were all unconscious on make-shift beds in the nurse's office.

She didn't understand what had happened.

Neither did Plum.

"Danny, plum?" he asked, swivelling his eyestalks at his young master's silent form. "Plum sorry."

* * *

Apricot looked up and saw the silent forms of Danny, Ember, and his human friends in the viewing portal. She was forbidden to interfere. And she'd have to explain to Clockwork why several clocks he'd wanted broken were now fully operational, due to her electrokinesis.

* * *

_Danny looked up at the woman. She had the same hair color and eye color as him. She even knew his name!_

_"Mom?" he quietly whispered._

_The silence carried his question to her ears. She nodded._

_Danny, then, did what all kids do when they needed questions, uh, I mean answers._

_"Why?" he asked._

_Sarah was at a lost for words._

Nocturne released the woman.

Enough for one night's meddling.

Frostbite's eyes narrowed as he saw the Dream Master's starry cloak for an instant.

He understood now.


	29. Dreamer's Luck

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_"We dream in joy and wake in love." - John Gardiner Calkins Brainard_

* * *

**Dreamer's Luck**

* * *

_"I didn't want to," Sarah tried to explain, but no sound came out of her mouth._

_The misty forms of her son and the three others began to disappear.._

_"Daniel, wait!" she cried, trying to reach him._

_Too late._

_She fell to the ground, crying._

_Frostbite held her in his arms and murmured words of comfort in her ears._

Frostbite pressed her head against his chest, letting the rhythm of his heartbeat soothe Sarah's troubled sleep. Whatever the Dream Master had shown her, was it worth the suffering she went through every day?

* * *

"Why are these not broken?" Clockwork asked, handing her the watch back.

"Uh, do you really want to know the answer to that?" Apricot asked, rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

"Enlighten me," the child Time Master said, folding his arms.

* * *

Danny opened his eyes and then shut them against the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting. "Ugh! What happened?"

"Plum, plum, plum!" a small fruit-like creature shouted, knocking the boy flat on his back again. "Sorry, Danny."

"Mom?" he asked weakly, looking around for the woman he'd seen in his dreams.

"She's on her way, Danny," the school nurse said, popping her head in the room, upon hearing the noise.

Danny heard the sounds of Sam, Ember, and Tucker waking up behind him.

"Whoa! What a rush," Ember moaned, shaking the cobwebs from her head.

* * *

"A human cannot be born of a union between ghost and human," Maddie argued.

"There is much you need to know, ghost hunter, if you wish to raise my son," the Fright Knight replied. "Daniel is fully human. I wasn't always as you see me now."

Maddie's head was spinning from the overload of info barraging her brains.

"What about his apprenticeship to your king?" Jack asked.

The Fright Knight frowned and then sheathed his sword, something very few people have ever seen. "Let me see the blue prints to the Ghost Portal," he said, ignoring Jack's previous question.

"Here," Jack said, handing it over.

"Jack, how could you do that?" Maddie hissed.

"Maybe he can see something we cannot," Jack reassured her.

She sighed. "I hope you're right."

"You forgot to configure a power source for the ecto-filtrator," the Fright Knight said, after examining the rough design. "Try an octagonal shape for the portal's body," he suggested.

He looked each of them into the eyes and gathered the darkness around him.

"If anything happens to Daniel, you will pay for the injuries one-hundred fold," the Fright Knight said, implying his previous threat.

"Fudge?" Jack offered, trying to guage this ghost's weak point.

"Get this portal up and running by Daniel's fourteenth year. Time is of the essence," the Fright Knight said, ignoring Jack's fudge offer.

* * *

"Danny, Sam, Tucker," the nurse said, hanging up the phone. "That was Mrs. Fenton. She says to say she's sorry, but she's running a bit late. Do you feel up to going back to class?"

"No," they replied.

"Okay," the nurse said, a bit too chipper.

"Who gave her a happy sunshine pill?" Ember grumped.

* * *

"I don't think we should tell Danny about his biological father," Jack said, as they climbed into the Ghost Assault Vehicle, oops RV.

Maddie nodded. "I agree," she replied, staring out of the window as Jack pulled the FFGAV into reverse and ran over the neighbor's mailbox.

"Fenton!" Amery Pole yelled, tearing out of his front door.

"Sorry!" Jack yelled, speeding off into the night.

Amery Pole sighed. "Idiot," he muttered, under his breath.


	30. First Twilight

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_This life of mortal breath is but a suburb of the life elysian, whose portal we call Death." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_

* * *

**First Twilight**

* * *

Time turned and turned again. Three times the journey it made around the yellow star. The familiar trio were seen exiting the local high school.

Danny kicked a can on the side walk. Today, when Dash had been bragging about how influential and rich his family was, a couple of kids had lapped it up. "Who does Dash think he is?"

"Being my charming old self?" Dash asked, coming up him. "Hope you're not bad about being stuffed into your locker again."

Danny rolled his eyes. " I've long ago quit trying to figure you out, Dash," he said. "You act like a creep and a bully in school and when you're with the jocks outside of school. But since you did your science project on my parents building the Ghost Portal, you've been all buddy-buddy with me. What gives?"

Dash shrugged. "It's fascinating. What can I say?"

"Maybe you've got more of a motive than that?" Tucker suggested. "Maybe you're in love with Jazz, hmm?"

"Stuff it, technogeek," Dash said, pulling Tucker's beret over his eyes. "Where's your girlfriend, Fenton?"

"Sam is not my girlfriend," Danny snarled. "I'm with Ember, remember."

"Yeah, yeah," Dash said waving his hand. "So when's the ghost portal going to be activated?"

"This afternoon," Sam answered, slinging her spider napsack over her shoulders. "Sorry, Lancer kept me after to discuss our last poetry assignment."

Danny blinked. "Oh, shoot! Why didn't someone remind me that it was today? I was supposed to be home half an hour ago!" He exclaimed, taking off in a dead run.

Sam sighed. "Better follow him."

Neither Sam nor Tucker were pleased to be escorting Dash Baxter of all people to the Fenton household. Especially, not on the day that Danny had been waiting for.

"It's hard to say good-bye," Tucker whispered.

Sam grunted, but even she had to agree.

* * *

Apricot, Ember, Youngblood, and Wulf were all waiting for the new portal to open. Clockwork had said today was the day.

"What's eating you?" Youngblood asked Ember. "I thought you were happy."

Ember sighed. "I am, but..." She turned downcast eyes at the floor.

"The human girl?" Youngblood suggested. "I can kill her if you want."

"Ne hodiaŭ, vi ne estos!" Wulf growled at him.

"He says 'Not today, you won't!'," Apricot translated. For the past three years, Apricot had been engaged in a course of studies, studying under all the Masters. This was because at Clockwork's insistence, King Pariah had decided to make her a liasion between the human world and the ghost world. A moment in time was coming when ghosts and humans would face a crisis like no other and would need to work together to save both their worlds.

"Rats," Youngblood muttered.

Ember laughed.

"Li estas incorrigle, tio, ke unu," Wulf replied with a grin.

"Yep, he's incorrigible alright," Apricot laughed

Youngblood shot her with a slingshot full of green goo.

More laughter ensued.

* * *

"So, why didn't you take him back all those years ago?" Pariah Dark asked the Fright Knight. "I wouldn't have objected."

"No, you would have sent me to the Observants," the Fright Knight replied.

Pariah grinned. "True," he answered. Placing an index finger on the side of his nose, the Ghost King had a thoughtful look on his face. "How ever did you find that ghost portal? I never even knew you knew how to find them."

The Fright Knight stared back at his liege. "Plasmius," he replied. "That's also how I found out Daniel was my son."

King Pariah scowled in anger.

The three vultures perched on the were startled by the angry bellowing from below. "AND YOU ABANDONED YOUR INFANT SON IN THE HUMAN WORLD, SURROUNDED BY HUMAN FILTH?"

"Think ve should tell the boss?" the lead vulture asked.

"Why youse asking us?" one of the other vultures answered.

* * *

"Mom, Dad, this is Dash Baxter, our school quarterback," Danny introduced the school bully to his adoptive parents.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton," Dash said, turning on the charm.

"Coughttoocoughthickcough," Sam choked out, wheezing a bit.

"Did you say something, Sam?" Jack asked.

She smiled innocently back at him.

Maddie's eyes narrowed, but she held her silence.

"Let her rip, Jack!" she called, checking all the outlets and plug-ins just once more. She still thought something was a bit off about the portal.

"Man, you're hot! Here goes!" the ghost hunter shouted, connecting the giant cables extruding from the back of the machine.

Pop! Fizzle! Spark!

"What happened?" Dash asked.

* * *

The ghosts watched the portal's outline glow.

"It's opening," Apricot whispered, her eyes shining with excitement.

"Is my hair okay? Do I have anything in my teeth?" Ember asked, flushed with the expectation of her beloved's arrival.

Wulf and Youngblood stared at her.

Girls!


	31. Diamond Shadow

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.- Paul Theroux_

* * *

**Diamond Shadow**

* * *

"I don't understand what went gone wrong," Jack said, examining the wiring. "It's plugged in properly."

"And all the calculations are correct," Maddie said. "Danny, sweetie, you really should put a hazmat suit on."

Danny hung his head. "Sorry," he mumbled, walking over to the closet and pulled out a white hazmat suit with black collar, gloves, boots, and belt.

* * *

"The glow's gone," Apricot said. "What happened?"

"Stulta fantomo ĉasistoj forgesis premi la sur transme?" Wulf suggested.

"That's absurd," Youngblood replied, once Apricot repeated what he'd said. "How can anyone forget to turn on the 'on' switch?"

"Do you even know what 'absurd' even means?" the Parrot countered.

"No, I just like the sound of it," Youngblood admitted, then glared at Ember. "What are you looking at?"

"Just its definition," she replied.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Danny," Sam said, taking out her camera. "Can I get a picture of you standing next to the portal?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Danny said. "Mom warned that it could explode or worse."

"Wuss," Dash muttered, loud enough for Danny to hear.

Danny's eyes flashed an ominous green. "What did you call me?" he asked angrily.

"Whoa, he really needs to take anger management classes," Tucker whispered to Sam.

"You heard me, Fenton, or you just chicken?" Dash taunted.

Sam caught on to Dash's plan. "Dash, knock it off. Danny, why don't you go look around inside or something? Maybe there's a loose wire."

Danny shook his head, not taking his blue eyes off Dash. "No, Sam. Too dangerous."

"You kids aren't thinking of going inside the portal are you?" Maddie asked, looking up from the plans.

"No ma'am!" they chorused.

"Wuss," Dash repeated.

"Keep pushing it, Baxter," Danny growled, eyes changing colors rapidly.

"Danny! Danny! Danny!" Plum said, excited that it was beginning at long last.

"Oh, hey, Plum. Sorry about this morning," Danny said, scratching behind one of Plum's eyestalks.

"Plum," the porcupine fruit purred.

* * *

"So every male of your lineage is born fully human with some sort of ghost power?" Pariah Dark asked his loyal chevalier.

"Aye, and we begin the change from human to ghost just after our second year of life, completing the change by our fourteenth birthing day," the Fright Knight said.

"So, what if there is a disruption of some sort?" the Ghost King asked.

"Then a halfa is born," the Dark Paladin sneered.

"So, Plasmius is of your bloodline?" Pariah asked.

"No, he was a fluke," the Fright Knight said.

"I see."

* * *

"Where's Jazz?" Tucker asked Danny.

"At some study session," Danny shrugged. "She didn't want to have anything to do with the ghost portal."

"I still think you should check out the inside for loose wires," Sam told him. "It'd be so cool to see inside a window to another world."

"I'm with her on this one, dude," Tucker said and Dash nodded in agreement.

Danny sighed. "Alright," he agreed, walking toward the giant metallic tube attached to the wall.

* * *

"Hey, Danny's coming this way!" Youngblood exclaimed, seeing the veil between the worlds thin out again.


	32. The Girlfriend of the End

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_The winds of life come strong from every point, yet each will speed thy course.- Theodore Chickering Williams_

* * *

**The Girlfriend of the End**

* * *

"Hey, Wuss, tell your corpse girlfriend I said 'hi'!," Dash called out.

Mrs. Fenton jerked her head up at the sound of the blond jock's voice. Seeing Danny climb into the portal caused her heart to skip a beat.

"Danny, get out of there!" she yelled.

"What?" he called back.

"I said, 'get out of there!'" she repeated, raising her voice an octave.

Danny couldn't hear her. He looked around and his eyes widened at all the wiring. "Where the heck do I even begin?" he asked, bewildered.

"Hey, son," Jack said, sticking his head inside the portal. "This isn't a toy you should be playing with. Come on out of there."

Danny's hopes fell. "Okay," he said, crestfallen.

Danny fingers ran alongside the smooth metal interior of the octogonal portal. His fingers brushed a few buttons, one of which was the 'on' switch he didn't see until the last minute.

A greenish-black whorl exploded from the tunnel, causing everyone to fall back.

"DANNY!" Maddie screamed.

He found himself floating in a dreamlike state, familiar voices talking about him, sounding like he was underwater.

"Danny? Can you hear me?" It sounded like Sam.

"Hey man, I'm sorry about taunting you like that. Please say you're alright," Dash was freaking out really bad if he was apologizing.

"He's coming to, Mr. Fenton," another voice said. Tucker, he thought.

He opened his eyes and quickly shut them. Too much light.

Opening his eyes slowly, he rushed forward and emptied the contents of his stomach into the sink. Looking upwards in the mirror, he paused.

"What the heck happened to my hair?" he exclaimed.

* * *

"He was disrupted," the Fright Knight hissed. "I'm going to fetch him home."

"May not be a good idea, right now," the Ghost King said.

"Why not?" he asked, turning his head slightly.

The Ghost King pointed to entrance way at a rabbit.

"A rabbit? What possible harm can a rabbit do to me?" he sneered.

The rabbit twitched its nose at him and then charged.

The Fright Knight snorted in mock fear, then screamed as he was flung across the room by a full-grown female goat.

"Silly, Pietr," a female voice coaxed the rabbit back into her arms.

"You must be Danny's mother," Pariah Dark said, bowing his head.

Sarah Wright nodded. "And you must be Danny's Master."

* * *

"I'm a ghost? A real ghost?" Danny asked, his green eyes wide with shock.

"Well, yes, but your mother and I have to perform some experiments to try and understand what just happened," Jack said.

"Oh man, this is so cool!" Danny shouted, floating upwards. "I'm floating. Wait, I'm floating? Ahhh!"

"Get off me, dipstick!" a girl's voice grunted from beneath him.

"Sorry, Ember," Danny blushed, then froze. "Ember?"

"Yeah, babypop. You did leave the door wide open. I took that as an invitation to come in," the female rocker purred. "And now we can go home and Daddy will...what's wrong with you?" Her last words were directed at Sam, who was glowering at them.

"Get away from him," Sam snarled, grabbing the first thing she could see within reach.

"Uh, Sam," Danny looked at her with a weird expression on his face. "That's a bar of soap."


	33. Frozen

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter. - Francoise Sagan_

* * *

**Frozen**

* * *

"And what do you think you are going to do with that, _human_ girl?" Ember sneered. "Wash my back?"

Sam's grip on the bar of soap slipped, pinging off Ember's forehead. "Okay, Goth girl, now you've gone and PO'ed me off!"

"PO'ed? What are you, a ten-years old kid?" Sam countered. "That is so yesterday's slang."

"Danny is mine by birthright!" Ember shouted.

"He has the right to decide for himself who he wants to marry!" Sam challenged.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Danny interjected.

"Shut up!" both girls yelled at him.

"Sorry," he mumbled, backing away.

* * *

The Fright Knight did the most extraordinary thing. He took off his helmet. Underneath, his hair was white as lamb's wool with lavender-gray highlights and eyes amber as the sky at sunset.

He bowed submissively to Sarah. "I'm sorry, Sarah," he said.

"Oh, now, you're going to apologize, especially after kidnapping me when I was in college and knew nothing about ghosts?" she fumed.

"I had cold feet?"

"I'll give you cold feet!"

Pariah Dark watched amusingly as Sarah proceeded to encase the Fright Knight in a block of ice. "How droll," he commented, a hint of amusement in his tone.

Pietr bleated in agreement.

* * *

"What is taking her so long?" Youngblood grumbled, his fingers twitching in agitation.

"Yo, half-pint, chill up," Apricot told him.

"You mean 'calm down'," the Parrot corrected.

"Same thing," Apricot said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't know why I hang around you two," the Parrot muttered, as Wulf gave a short bark of laughter.

* * *

"The best we can deduce," Jack Fenton told the kids, "is that Danny is neither fully human nor fully ghost."

"A halfa," Ember said, connecting the dots. "That's not good news."

"Why not?" Maddie asked, curious.

"Because, no one can be both dead and alive at the same time. Danny must decide if he wants to be a human or a ghost," the ghost princess answered.

"This should be easy," Dash murmured. "Hey, Fenton, humans are better than ghosts."

"Nuh-uh, mortal wimp! Ghosts have more fun!" came a kid's voice from inside the portal.

"Youngblood!" Danny exclaimed, his emerald eyes lighting up at the sound of his best friend's voice. "Come on, Ember!"

"Right behind you, babypop!" she said, shooting a triumphant look at Sam.

* * *

_**(1) All ghosts are taught about the possibility of hybrids as part of their education and the consequences. That's how Ember knew how to explain it to the Fentons, Sam, Tucker, and Dash.**_

_**(2) It's not stated, but Danny **__**does**__** have the option to remain a halfa, but this comes at a great cost. (I have no idea what yet, so please don't ask me.)**_

_**(3) I almost named this chapter "Catfight".**_


	34. Fantasy Bubble

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_"The blue's but a mist from the breath of the wind." - Robert Frost, "Blueberries"_

* * *

**Fantasy Bubble**

* * *

"He just left," Tucker said, dropping his hand. His green eyes dimmed as the excitement wore off.

"No good-byes," Sam murmured. "Boy, he really is clueless."

"Well," Jack boomed, a smile plastered on his face. "Who wants fudge?"

Maddie, Jazz, Dash, Tucker and Sam looked at one another in silence and then back at the portal. One thought echoed in their minds: _Would Danny ever come home?_

* * *

Plum rubbed his soft quills against Danny's cool cheek. "Danny, plum." His master had changed, but still stayed the same. "Plum."

* * *

Sam stared out the kitchen window. "I wish Danny..." She jerked in the direction of the kitchen sink, when the dish Jazz was holding slipped out of her hands and crashed to the floor.

Jazz's azure eyes met amethyst, as she looked chagrined. "Sorry," she apologized. Maddie had told her what had happened when she came home an hour ago.

Maddie stood up from the table, mumbled something about not feeling well and excused herself to go lie down.

Jack sighed. His only son had calously abandoned his family to follow tiny bits of post-humous bed-sheeting wearing spooks, just without the bedsheet. Heck, he was one of them now. "Kids," he said, "why don't you go on home? We'll let you know when he gets back."

"If he comes back," Jazz muttered.

"Okay, Mr. Fenton," Sam said, grabbing Tucker and dragging him out the door.

"I didn't get to finish my fudge," he complained.

"Shut up, Tucker," Sam growled.

"Shutting up," he gulped.

* * *

"Cool," Youngblood said, appraising Danny's new look. "Now we don't have to carry you around anymore. What kind of powers do you have?"

"Peace," the Parrot groaned. "He hasn't even got his bearings yet as a ghost, and you're already being a royal pest."

"That's my job," Youngblood said, brushing imaginary dirt off his sleeves. "Don't waste it."

"Wait until Jorge and Alice get a load of you," Apricot said, ignoring the half-pint. "You're going to break some hearts, ghost boy."

"Ni estas atend vi, mia princo," Wulf said, a bit more reserved than usual.

Ember's eyes widened with alarm. "Uh-oh, Father."

Danny whimpered.

* * *

"What is taking them so long?" the Fright Knight muttured, gnashing his teeth in anger, his amber eyes burning yellow in the helmet's shade.

"Patience," Clockwork told him. "Let Phantom have some fun first."

Phantom?" Frostbite said, perking up. " I like it."

"It has a ring to it," Sarah added, as Pietr butted her from behind. "We do have quite a problem on our hands."

"Yes," the Fright Knight said, reaching for his sword. "Let's kill us a couple of ghost hunters."

"Any one have a pumpkin?" Frostbite joked backing up.

Clockwork glanced into his viewing portal and chuckled. "I was wondering when he'd get to it."

"I don't want to know," Pariah Dark replied.

* * *

"Do you think Danny will ever come back?" Maddie asked her husband later that evening.

"I don't know, Maddie," Jack replied, staring at the ceiling. "I just don't know."

"Please, Danny, come back," Jazz whispered to a one-eyed worn-out teddy bear wearing a faded lab coat. "Bearbert Einstein, I really miss him a lot."


	35. Absent Ice

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_A typical class in high school: show up, get rid of your homework, get new homework, leave._

* * *

**Absent Ice**

* * *

(Pariah's Keep)

Pietr bleated as the skeletal guards let Jorge, Old Simon, and Alice into the throne room.

"We left just as they arrived," Alice explained. "Poor boy's skin and bones. Those ghost hunters are not feeding him the proper protein he needs to grow big and strong."

"I was skinny at that age as well, as was my father and his father before him," the Fright Knight retorted.

"Look on the bright side," Frostbite told him. "He can be properly trained in cryokinetics now that he's full ghost."

"Half ghost," Sarah corrected. "Clockwork, what if he makes the wrong decision?"

Clockwork's crimson eyes turned in her direction. "He won't," he reassured her.

"We can only hope," Pariah Dark replied, afraid of what his daughter was doing to her betrothed that very moment, the kiss seered into his mind's eye. Fortunately, the boy couldn't use the Ring of Rage unless he had the Crown of Fire. The Ring augmented his natural abilities, but who was he to say how it would work with a halfa.

* * *

(Jorge's Warehouse)

"I am not wearing these things!" Danny yelled at Ember.

"Parrot got them from Prince Aragon," Apricot answered for her. "That's the medieval equivalent of really nice togs."

"Togs?" Youngblood asked her.

"Fancy clothes," Ember translated.

"Oh," he replied.

"But pantyhose?" Danny protested.

"At least the black dress robes with silver weaving is an improvement over that dumb jumpsuit," Ember shot back. "You do want to make a nice impression on Daddy, don't you?"

"Yeah," Danny admitted.

"Then get dressed," she told him.

* * *

(Aragon's Lair)

He giggled with glee. "Soon the boy will be on his way back to the humans and Princess Ember will be mine."

"What price did you and the bird settle on?" Dora asked, coming in the room.

"The first and last dance," Aragon chortled.

Dora gasped and backed away from her brother. "You'll bring the wrath of the Masters and the King down on us."

"Fear not, little sister," Aragon told her. "You'll get to dance with the little halfa soon enough."


	36. Dispense with the Nuisance

Time in the Heartn

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_When 900 years old you reach, look as good, you will not. - Yoda _

**AN: Yoda hasn't met the Doctor. ^_~**

* * *

**Dispense with the Nuisance**

* * *

**oo Ghost Zone oo**

"Prince Daniel and Princess Ember!" the herald announced the new arrivals.

"Hey, what about us?" a small kid asked, tugging on the guard's arm.

"And a couple of nuisances!" the skeletal guard added, his red eyes flickering mischievously.

"Plum?"

"He's just joking," Danny explained, clutching his pet to his chest.

Ember snorted with laughter. "And he's always getting into trouble for it," she added.

"Plum."

"Hey, Danny, there is something I need to tell you," the Parrot said, just before Youngblood silenced him.

"Later, crowsquawk," Youngblood hissed. "We're here."

The Parrot bit him.

Apricot rolled her eyes at their antics.

Two more skeletal guards pulled open the doors and ushered them inside the throne room.

**oo Wisconsin oo**

"So long as we're clear on the subject, Aragon," Plasmius sneered. "You may have the kingdom, but the boy is mine."

"We are agreed," the Dragon Prince said, formally bowing the most treacherous ghost in the Zone.

"Skulker, go and create a diversion. Prince Daniel needs a very warm welcome home," Plasmius ordered the other ghost in the room.

"Yes, Plasmius," Skulker growled, cracking his knuckles. Time to give the boy a taste of his own medicine.

**oo Pariah's Keep oo**

Pariah Dark examined the boy who knelt before him. He was too skinny, his hair needed trimming, and the clothes he wore ill-fitted him.

"Apprentice Daniel, welcome home," he said, raising the boy to his feet. "We've all missed you greatly."

Several ghosts in the room nodded.

Danny felt something soft and furry hop onto his head.

"Plum!" Plum screeched in angry at whatever it was.

Danny reached up and stared into the soft dark eyes of a rabbit. The rabbit snuffled his hair and stared back at him.

"Seems Pietr like you, Great One," the voice of the Far Frozen's chieftain rumbled, catching his attention.

Danny looked around the room, silently naming each ghost that he knew. Then he saw them.

Amber eyes hidden under a heavy iron helmet, with a plume of purple flame. He was the King's personal champion and right hand man. Danny recognized the Fright Knight, who nodded at him in greeting.

Next to the Fright Knight, with her arms entwined in Frostbite's snow-covered fur was the dark-haired beauty he'd seen in the vision in the nurse's office.d

"I'm not dreaming, am I?" he asked in confusion.

"No, son, you are not," the Fright Knight answered. "And yes, I am your rightful father. As she is your rightful mother."

"He's nervous, the clothes are falling off his back, and he's too skinny," Alice muttered to Jorge. "The boy must not go back to the ghost hunters."

"From what I have seen those two do to obtain ectoplasm from us, I whole-heartedly agree," Jorge whispered back.

**oo Sarah oo**

His emerald eyes and ivory hair complemented his pale tan. At least he's not being rambunctious like that Klemper lad. The clothes had to go though.

"Danny?" she spoke his name for the first time in years. "Welcome home," she said.

**oo Danny oo**

"So that's why mom could never find out who my real parents were," I muttered under my breath.

I squared my shoulders and then tugged up my breeches again. Blast Ember and these pantyhose!

"Why?" I asked her. "Why?"

"I will explain," Clockwork said, stepping forward into the light.

**oo Plum oo**

_Meat-Lady with the spatula._

_Man with purple fire for hair._

_Man with arm of ice._

"Danny, cold," I told him.

"It's the ghosts," Danny tells me.

"Plum want a plum," I said, repeating the sentence that the human girl with the red hair had been teaching me for the past month.

**oo Parrot oo**

_Wulf can smell my fear. I know it. I am so dead. King Pariah will kill me himself when he finds out. Heaven help us if Danny doesn't inherit the throne._

**oo Clockwork oo**

_Time to foil Aragon's plan once and for all._

"Daniel, take off those robes. They're not your style."

"Good," he blew a sigh of relief. "The pantyhose is chaffing my thighs."


	37. Entwined Prophecy

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. - Napoleon Bonaparte_

* * *

**Entwined Prophecy**

* * *

Phantom was greatly relieved to be out of those clothes. "I don't understand how you keep those things up," he whispered to Ember, referring to the tights he had to endure.

"Garters," she replied back.

"I thought Medusa was the only one who used snakes for underwear," Danny commented, only have to have the whole room hear him. He flushed red with embarrassment, as a few people in the throne room, who shall not be named, twittered slightly.

The Time Master chuckled. "Well, now that we have that out of our systems, tell me you two. Have you ever danced before?"

Ember shook her head no, then elbowed Danny, who followed her lead.

Pariah Dark inwardly smiled at the boy. He was already wrapped around the girl's little finger. "So at the ball, what are you supposed to do?" he asked them.

Danny looked helplessly over at his parents, who shook their heads. He would get no help from that quarter, nor from his friends either, by the looks of things.

"Bow to each other," The Time Master said, indicating the steps for the first dance between the betrothed couple.

Phantom and Ember bowed to one another.

"They're cute," Sarah whispered to Frostbite.

"I think so too," Frostbite replied.

"Danny, you're shivering. What wrong?" Ember asked, alarmed that his lips were turning blue.

"Don't know," he said, alarmed at the sudden freezing temperatures.

"Here," she told him, " I have a fire core. Let me warm you." She pressed her lips to his and brushed her hand lightly over his heart.

A sudden spark jolted them back to reality, when they realized silence had fallen over the room.

The Time Master was grinning at them.

"And the first dance is complete," he answered their puzzled looks.

"But we didn't even dance," Danny protested.

"The first and last dances are not dances per se," Clockwork explained. "They are more rituals or formalities. The first dance is the uniting of the heart cores."

"Please tell me you're going to wait for the last dance, when they're older," Pariah Dark pleaded.

Clockwork chuckled. "I'm sorry, my liege, but time is of the essence, if Aragon's plan is to be foiled and the boy's life to be spared. Ah, you're late," he told the robotic ghost standing stone-still in the entrance way.

"Well, I didn't want to make a splashy entrance," Skulker answered.

"So, Plasmius wants the boy?" the Fright Knight growled. "No one is taking my son from me ever again." He drew his sword while saying this.

"He only wants to teach the boy," Skulker protested, turning pale at the sight of the Soul Shredder.

"He wants the kingdom, you mean," Sarah snarled, her hands glowing blue as she reached for her ice powers.

"Careful," Frostbite cautioned.

Unbeknownst to the commotion going on around them, Danny was completing the last dance with Ember. Ember encircled her arms around his neck and drew him in for a kiss. Danny moaned and without thinking about, drew her closer to him. A thread of light glowed between them, as Danny's icy core melded with Ember's heartfire. Ember, likewise, felt the intense flames dampen as Danny's latent cryokinesis cooled them. The kiss between the lovers deepened.

The Time Master was pleased.

"All is as it should be," he murmured, adjusting a knob on his chronostaff.

* * *

Aragon, seeing his plans foiled, threw the silver bowl at the wall, splashing the wall with the water. "Damn Plasmius and that meddling Clockwork! All for naught!" He also knew any further plans would bring the Ghost King's wrath down on his head.

Princess Dorathea hummed to herself as she cleaned up the mess. She hadn't wanted to marry the boy anyway and was secretly glad the Time Master had stopped everything before it got worse.

"Wait until you're much older before you go any further," Clockwork interrupted Danny and Ember. "You might not like the consequences," he added, causing them to both blush.

"It's time you went back to the human world, Prince Phantom," Clockwork told the boy. "Your family and friends miss you."

Ember nodded. "Sam and Tucker and the ghost hunters," she explained, as it dawned on him. "Until we're old enough, you still have to stay with Jorge and Alice, when you come back to visit."

Youngblood, Apricot and Plum all bobbed their heads in agreement. "We'll be with you all the way," Youngblood added.

"Plum want a plum!"

"Jazz should never have taught him that," Danny grumbled. Then he saw Wulf grinning, well like a wolf.

"I will open the portal for mi amigo," the lycan said.

"But first, a word, my apprentice," Pariah Dark commanded.

"Yes, my Master," Danny gulped, remembering to give the proper respect for his Master.


	38. Blue Flower

Time in the Heart

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

_Live life to the fullest... think of all the people on the Titanic who passed up chocolate dessert.  
_

* * *

**Blue Flower**

* * *

"Danny, hand me the drying towel, please," Maddie asked without turning around.

"Sure," he replied, handing it to her.

Maddie dropped the dish she was holding and pivoted around so swiftly, she'd put a ballerina to shame. "D-d-danny? When did you come home? I didn't think we'd ever see you again." She hugged him tightly.

"Mom, air," he begged. He looked almost human with his white hair and glowing green eyes.

"Stay, here," she told him, before running downstairs to shut off the ghost alarms which had begun blaring. "Jack, it's just Danny!" she called out.

The man could move fast when he wanted to do so. "Danny's back? I thought he was staying in the ghost world since he's their Crown Prince and all?"

Danny shook his head, for as Jack had been saying that last sentence, he'd moved within range of Danny's hearing. "Yes and no, Dad."

"So you decided to remain a human?" Jazz asked, coming downstairs to see what the commotion was all about.

"No," Danny replied, shaking his head. "Eventually, I'm going to become full ghost, but my Master decided to let me live in the human world for a few more years for my journeymanship. I have been told that there is another halfa like me, who has been given guardianship of me."

"He's going to help you learn your powers, you mean," Jazz stated. "You're just here to say good-bye, aren't you?"

Danny shook his head. "Nope," he replied. "The other halfa is moving here instead, so we can still be a family."

"But if you'll be under the guardianship of this other halfa," Maddie said, voicing her thoughts out loud, "then that means you'll have to move in with him."

"Wrong again," Danny answered. "Only on the weekends will I be staying with him for training. Plasmius is a Fruitloop; I met him on the way home."

"Oh," Jack replied, then his face brightened. "Do you know the name of his human half?" he asked.

Danny shook his head. "We're not that formal," he replied, then grinned mischievously. "He did teach me a neat trick though."

Maddie, Jack, and Jazz watched in amazement as Danny returned to his normal human form. "Pretty sweet," Jack told him.

"Are you going to call Sam and Tucker?" Jazz asked.

Danny shook his head. "I'll see them at school tomorrow."

"Danny, do you want to try one more time to locate your birth parents?" Maddie asked.

The halfa shook his head in negation. "They were there," he whispered. "Mom, did you ever know a girl named Sarah Wright?"

"We went to college together," Maddie answered, thinking back to her friend's strange disappearance fifteen years ago.

"She's learning ice magic in the Far Frozen with my soon-to-be step-father Clan Leader Frostbite," he told her. "She's got a pet rabbit named Pietr, that can change into a temperamental nanny goat at will."

Maddie and Jack digested this bit of info, while Jazz asked him, "What about your real father?"

"He's the Fright Knight," came the short reply, which brought a hiss of recognition to Jack's lips.

"What?" Danny asked him.

"Nothing," Maddie replied, shooting Jack a warning look.

"Plum want a plum!" Danny's pet said, popping out of the blue.

"You really know how to ruin a moment, don't you?" Danny grumbled.

"Danny dance with Ember," came the retort.

Maddie, Jack, and Jazz watched curiously as Danny turned red with embarrassment.

_"PLU-UM!"_

_Meanwhile, in the Ghost Zone..._

"You really should have told the boy, Clockwork," Pariah Dark complained.

"He wasn't ready to know the truth about his past," the Time Master replied, adjust another loose knob on his chronometer.

Pariah Dark sighed. "All is as it should be," he repeated the TIme Master's favorite phrase.

"Indeed," Clockwork said, adjusting a viewing portal showing three Fentons laughing, while an embarrassed Danny fired green ecto-rays at a rapidly tesseracting plum with golden porcupine quills around the normal human kitchen.

"All is as it should be," Clockwork murmured to himself.

* * *

**Author's Note: It has been quite a journey with Danny and his little pet hasn't it? I deliberately left the story open-ended; there will be a sequel-I'm working on the first chapter as we speak.**


End file.
